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THE WINTER'S TALE Send This Review to a Friend
There is a tendency in staging Shakespeare to attempt something different. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The Pearl Theatre Company goes whole hog and sets the scene in a contemporary apartment and then juggles the furniture around as Shakespeare’s play unfolds, taking us everywhere, indoors and out, which calls upon us to use maximum imagination. Frankly, the whole concept is a diversion that distracts from the play. Also, the language of Shakespeare that cast members strive to get right contrasts sharply with the setting.
Director Michael Sexton is bound by the concept choice (set design by Brett J. Banakis), and works hard accordingly in trying for the production to keep making sense and adhere to the Bard’s play, however transposed and gimmick-laden. But despite all of the hard work, the comic shtick and staging ideas strewn about, the result, occasionally relieved by humor, is quite a mess.
One of the better moments occurs toward the end, when the events are resolved and the requisite reunions take place. There is credible emotion exhibited. But it takes a long time to get there, nearly three hours, and by that time you may have been glancing at your watch.
The cast members give it their all, to be sure. Peter Francis James excels as the King, Leontes, who is consumed with jealousy and believes his wife Hermione, well played by Jolly Abraham, and the king of Bohemia, Polixenes (Bradford Cover), are lovers. Leontes is overcome by rage and a hunger for revenge, which sets off the complicated plot that ensues.
Other cast members include Rachel Botchan, Steve Cuiffo, Dominic Cuskern, Adam Green, Tom Nelis, Imani Jade Powers and James Udom. They all work very hard in the labyrinth of the busy production.
Call me retrograde. But I would have much preferred to see a more standard setting enabling an audience to concentrate on the play itself rather than on all of the distractions. At the Pearl Theatre, 555 West 42nd Street. Phone: 212-563-9261. Reviewed February 25, 2015.
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