We’re not in Wonderland anymore
Christopher Wheeldon, known for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, tackles Shakespeare
Christopher Wheeldon is widely hailed as one of today’s finest choreographers. He’s the man who delivered the National Ballet of Canada’s runaway hit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 2011.
His latest production for the company, The Winter’s Tale, reunites the same collaborators — composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley — but it’s a very different cup from the kind served at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
In fact, if you were a big-name ballet choreographer with a reputation to maintain, of all Shakespeare’s 37 plays the enigmatic Winter’s Tale seems the least probable choice. Even scholars consider it a “problem” play and the affably candid Wheeldon doesn’t dispute them.
“Actually, it was suggested to me,” explains the British-born, New York-based Wheeldon, 42.
“It wasn’t a play I’d studied at school and so I didn’t know it. And frankly I was confounded by it at first.”
The Winter’s Tale is among Shakespeare’s late offerings, written and first performed around 1610. It defies easy categorization but is often described as a tragicomedy, meaning it covers dark ground but has a more or less happy ending. The story, set in two contrasting countries and with a time gap of 16 years, mixes reality and fantasy.
In short form, it’s the story of a Sicilian king, Leontes, who wrongly accuses Hermione, his pregnant queen, of infidelity. Leontes puts his wife on trial.
He tries to kill her supposed lover and his erstwhile best friend, Polixenes, king of Bohemia. Leontes disowns the girl Hermione delivers and subsequently orders a courtier, who aptly names her Perdita, to abandon said babe in the wilderness.
If it were not for Hermione’s almost saintly friend Paulina, and the command-bending actions of Paulina’s courtier-husband, Antigonus, The Winter’s Tale would be a full-blown tragedy, but here the evil and injustice are salved by compassion, forgiveness and ultimate redemption.
For all its puzzling elements, The Winter’s Tale is a wondrous play but surely lacks narrative drive of the sort ideally suited to ballet. A good deal of the drama is recounted by other characters, not enacted. All this helps explain why, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, Wheeldon is the first to risk such a venture.
He consulted Shakespeare experts and attended two regular stage productions, one of which Wheeldon says was “deathly boring.” Then he started following the lead of other Shakespeare choreographers and pared away the inessentials.
Forget about Leontes consulting a Delphic oracle; no room for mythology. Farewell the noble Sicilian, Camillo, even if this denies Paulina a second husband. But, unlike the play, we do get to see Leontes’ heir, Mamillius, who is mortally overcome by his father’s cruelty toward Hermione.
“My aim was to boil it down to its essence,” Wheeldon says.
“In the play, there’s so much commenting on the dramatic action. You couldn’t do that in the ballet. The major dramatic moments have to be shown.”
But what about the fate of Antigonus? Shakespeare dispatches Antigonus with the immortal stage direction: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Wheeldon says silk effects designer Basil Twist has given it a “poetic” treatment.
“Let’s face it, it’s hard not to giggle at an actor in a bear costume,” Wheeldon says.
Like Wheeldon’s Alice ballet, The Winter’s Tale is a co-production with the Royal Ballet, meaning that the venerable British company got to make it and perform it first in London but, in return for a major financial contribution, our National Ballet initially has exclusive North American performing rights.
Like Wheeldon, National Ballet artistic director Karen Kain was unfamiliar with the play but after attending its Covent Garden premiere says she was profoundly moved by it.
“It’s in every way a truly beautiful ballet,” Kain says.
She’s also quick to point out that Wheeldon’s willingness to have his work performed by the National Ballet is much more than a business deal.
“Christopher has told me that what he loves about the National Ballet is the way it has all of that North American athleticism but at the same time the ability to portray characters in the British tradition, something that’s been passed down in the company from founder Celia Franca’s day.”
By dint of its title alone, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland almost guarantees buoyant tickets sales. It’s also family-friendly. A ballet about alleged adultery and vengeful jealousy hardly fits that bill, nor does its title have such iconic drawing power. When the Cheshire Cat first beamed its ironical smile toward Alice here in June 2011, the National Ballet gave it 14 performances. In its first Toronto run, The Winter’s Tale is getting only nine.
Even so, to judge by its rapturous critical reception in Britain 16 months ago, The Winter’s Tale is a finer choreographic achievement whose rewards for ballet lovers will only increase with repeated viewing; in other words, a keeper. The Winter’s Tale is at the Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. W., Saturday to Nov. 22; national.ballet.ca, 416-3459595 or 1-866-345-9595.
“It’s in every way a truly beautiful ballet.” NATIONAL BALLET ARTISTIC DIRECTOR KAREN KAIN ON THE WINTER’S TALE