The Winter's Tale

Shakspeare's problem plays needn't be problematic: a skilful director can handle shifts from tragedy to comedy and keep the audience gripped.

The Winter's Tale is a particularly unconventional sort of play, leaping as it does from psychological drama to daft romance, and involving an audacious time shift of more than a decade.

Mark Thomson's production starts off very strongly indeed, thanks to a tremendous performance by Liam Brennan as King Leontes. The play's opening scene sees the devoted husband of Queen Hermione (Selina Boyack) and loyal friend of King Polixenes (Ian Grieve) transform very suddenly into a jealousy-consumed tyrant, when he becomes convinced that the pair are having an affair.

Brennan perfectly captures the king's swift descent into paranoia, gradually increasingly the venom in his voice as he talks himself into believing his unfounded suspicion. This is an actor entirely at ease with delivering asides to the audience, and capable of preserving an essence of humanity in Leontes even as his actions become increasingly abhorrent.

A compelling first half ends with a lovely comic scene between shepherds Peter Kelly and Robin Laing, who discover the royal couple's abandoned daughter, born to Hermione in prison and cruelly rejected by Leontes.

After the interval, however, the production stumbles and takes a while to recover. 'Time', the character who brings the audience up to speed, takes the form and computer-generated voice of Stephen Hawking; if nothing else, this bizarre piece of 'casting' serves as a reminder that delivering Shakespearean dialogue with clarity and meaningful emphasis is a real skill.

As young lovers Perdita and Florizel, Simon Muller and Siobhan Reilly certainly fare better, but they are a mismatched pair and lack the chemistry needed to inspire a real interest in their fate. The sheep-shearing feast is a jolly enough affair, but it doesn't quite match in comic exuberance what the earlier scenes delivered in dramatic bite.

The fantastical conclusion, however, is suitably satisfying, and Brennan alone makes this production well worth seeing.