Theater Review: Bus Barn stage: Late-period Shakespeare attractively done Theater Review: Bus Barn stage: Late-period Shakespeare attractively done (January 28, 2004)

By Bryan Wiggin

Almanac Theater Critic

"The Winter's Tale" is one of Shakespeare's less frequently presented works. It's one of the late plays that are called romances, and it contains a lively mix of the improbable and the impossible.

Leontes, king of Sicilia, precipitously decides that his wife, Hermione, has been unfaithful with his lifelong friend Polixenes, the king of Bohemia, who has been paying them a visit. He puts his wife in prison and orders his faithful servant Camillo to poison Polixenes. But Camillo, knowing the king is off his chump, warns Polixenes, and the two hightail it for Bohemia.

Leontes sends messengers to the oracle of Apollo to learn the truth of things. Meanwhile, Hermione gives birth in prison to a daughter, which Leontes denounces as the sprout of Polixenes. He orders another faithful servant, Antigonus, to abandon the infant in the wilderness, which Antigonus agrees to do.

When the messengers return with Apollo's pronouncement that all the accused are innocent, Leontes is ferociously repentant, but Paulina, wife of Antigonus, tells him that Hermione has died. Antigonus, after depositing the baby on a forest floor in Bohemia, is pursued and eaten by a bear. A shepherd and his son decide to raise the child.

Sixteen years pass, and we have a long comic scene involving a bunch of rustics as well as a roguish cutpurse named Autolycus -- flamboyantly done by Bill Olson. Florizel, the son of the Polixenes, and Perdita, the abandoned daughter of Leontes, have fallen in love. But Polixenes refuses a union between his royal son and the daughter of a shepherd. The lovers, advised by Camillo, flee to Sicilia and present themselves to the grieving Leontes. Perdita's true identity is discovered.

Leontes and Polixenes are reconciled. And the long-hidden Hermione, presented as a statue that comes to life, forgives Leontes, who finds in Camillo a husband for Paulina.

Director Marcia Frederick moves things at a quick pace. The actors are well-rehearsed, and pieces fit together smoothly. But what's needed is a more overt interpretation of the dialogue, both through vocal inflection and from gestures and facial expressions, so those not fluent in Elizabethan will know what's going on. The principal drift of the story is clear, but quite a bit is missed as we hurry along. Also, the articulation of the actors sometimes needs to be more bitingly precise. They speak rapidly, but they also need to speak with unmistakable clarity. It's difficult, but that's what Shakespearean acting is.

The best verbal performance comes from Shelley Lynn Johnson as Paulina. She speaks at a moderate pace, and with clarity and dignity. Sylvia Burboeck is almost as good as Hermione. Noah James Butler has the very difficult role of Leontes. He gives it a seething intensity, but too often his words are mashed together. Frederick Goris is an amiable Polixenes, and Steve Lambert is a sage Camillo. Joshua Hayden and Melissa Condren are fresh and impulsive as the young lovers, Florizel and Perdita. Jim Johnson, a comic reliable, wins laughs as the shepherd.

The costumes of Amy Zsadanyi-Yale have the Renaissance look, and the set of Marcia Frederick is spare and serviceable.

All in all, this is a worthy production of "The Winter's Tale." You might want to take it in, because you're not likely soon to see another.
INFORMATION

"The Winter's Tale," by William Shakespeare, is being presented at the Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos through February 14. For information, call 941-0551.

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