A WINTER’S TALE by William Shakespeare. Directed by Patricia McGregor. CalShakes, Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda. (510) 548-9666. www.calshakes.org.
September 25 –October 20, 2013
A WINTER’S TALE a ‘double header’ at CalShakes
When was the last time you saw a Shakespearean play produced as it was written? Difficult question to answer? In modern times the Bard’s plays have tread the boards as “concept” performances and those concept performances have ranged from brilliant to outrageous and all descriptions in between. Then there are concept performances by Patricia McGregor that defy description and CalShakes’ production of the preposterous A Winter’s Tale fits in between with a touch of brilliance and an outrageous second act.
In Shakespeare’s time “a winter’s tale” suggests “an old wife’s tale’ and what you hear is hardly true and often embellished. The play is divided into two parts with 16 years intervening. The first locale is King Leontes’s court in Sicily infused with high drama and the second the carefree land of Bohemia depicted by a May Pole with multicolored ribbons. This being the end of the regular baseball season referring to the play as a ‘double-header” seems appropriate.
Before the play begins director Patricia McGregor (her sister Paloma is listed as movement director) has members of the cast warm-up the audience with a juggling act and audience participation. Center stage is dominated by a psychedelic three level tower and stage right a small version a recreational trailer. The trailer may symbolize that we are going to be taken for a ride. 
Omozé idehenre, Margo Hall and L. Peter Callender
Before we take that ride to Bohemia drama unfolds when King Leontes (L. Peter Callender) and his wife Hermione (Omoze Idehenre) have entertained his best friend King Polixenes of Bohemia (Aldo Billingslea) for the past nine months. Leontes accuses Hermoine of making him a cuckold with Polixenes being the father of her unborn child. No matter how earnestly Paulina (Margo Hall) Hermoine’s lady-in-waiting defends the Queen, Leontes’ rage increases. Margo Hall matches Callendar’s histrionics line for line creating a dynamic confrontation. The female child is born and rejected. Hermoine and the child Mamillius (Akili Moore alternating with Zion Richardson) heir to the throne die of broken hearts. The female child is whisked away by the courtiers and is rescued by a poor shepherd (Callender) and his son (Margo Hall). Eight cast members play double roles and are part of the ensemble. End of act one.
In the intervening 16 years the babe, now named Perdita (Tristan Cunningham) has blossomed into a beauty and has fallen in love with Florizel (Tyee Tilghman), Polixenes’ son and heir to his throne. True love never runs smoothly. The Prince Florizel cannot marry the commoner Perdita.
Before all gets resolved and the statue of Hermione mystically comes to life (after all the play is listed as a romance) Shakespeare introduces a rogue Autolycus (Christopher Michael Rivera) who is a peddler and a pick-pocket who becomes instrumental in the resolution of the play. Although Callender and Hall give yeoman performances, Rivera is the spark that keeps the story interesting.
Director McGregor has given the cast free range and the acting is extremely broad best described as emoting. This Shakespeare play is often remembered as the one that includes a bear in the cast. The tall imposing Aldo Billingslea plays the bear with aplomb as he chases a hapless courtier off the stage to devour him.
All in all the drama, romance, redemption and staging make this a tongue-in-cheek evening worth seeing. Running time of this truncated production is 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
Omozé idehenre as Hermione, Margo Hall as Paulina, and L. Peter Callender as Leontes in Cal Shakes’ A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, directed by Patricia McGregor; photo by Kevin Berne.
