This indie Winter’s Tale is well told
The Winter’s Tale K (out of 4) Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Graham Abbey. Until Feb. 20 at the Coal Mine Theatre, 1454 Danforth Ave.
Stratford Festival veteran Brian Bedford died earlier this month, which makes this indie production of The Winter’s Tale a bittersweet experience; he directed a well-loved version at the festival in 1998. Luckily, The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s later plays that define “bittersweet.”
Because of its tragic first half, romantically comedic second half and the enigmatic business with the bear in the middle, this “problem play” is one of the Bard’s more difficult to pull off.
But Graham Abbey, who performed in Bedford’s 1998 production and directed this one as the inaugural production of the Groundling Theatre Company, happily does so — with a little help from his friends.
The tight new location of the Coal Mine Theatre on the Danforth means that the all-star cast of The Winter’s Tale are practically tripping over the winter boots of the audience. Tom McCamus (recently seen in the Oscar-nominated film Room) stars as the King of Sicilia, Leontes, who suspects his wife, Hermione (Michelle Giroux), of having an affair with his friend King Polixenes of Bohemia (Patrick Galligan), who’s in Sicilia for a visit.
There’s no scripted evidence of the roots of this suspicion, but Graham sets it up by opening the play with Leontes, alone in the dark, scornfully watching home movies of happier times. This is not a spur of the moment hunch, but a symptom of deeper issues in a troubled marriage.
This is the advantage of seeing Stratford-level Shakespeare in such an intimate space: without the grandeur that people associate with Shakespearean performance, it’s a nuanced story about imperfect humans.
It also lets explosive moments land, like Lucy Peacock’s berating of Leontes with both words and fists as Paulina, the audience’s voice of wisdom.
But watch out for sightlines. The acting is so good that it’s a shame to lose a good chunk of it to sometimes clumsy uses of the space.
This is also why you may already be out of luck when it comes to scoring tickets; advance seats are sold out thanks to the talent involved, not just names like McCamus, Peacock, Galligan and Tony Award winner Brent Carver, but younger performers like Charlie Gallant, who’s wonderful as Florizel, son of Polixenes.
Graham’s vision holds everything and everyone together, with a sentimental embrace for the play’s themes of forgiveness, redemption, love and resurrection, emphasized here with an unconventional, magic-realist spin on the infamous “Exit, pursued by a bear” stage direction.
With Graham taking on more directorial duties at Stratford this season with the two-parter Breath of Kings, this production is a promising sneak peek.