The Winter's Tale - BBC Shakespeare Collection [1981]

I made the mistake of curling up on a cold Sunday afternoon to watch this unfamiliar play without first checking the running time. An hour and twenty minutes later - when I was half hoping it was drawing to a close - I was dismayed to see "End of Part One" appear on the screen! I spent the second half fidgeting, looking at my watch, and trying to decide when to start making dinner.

This version of The Winters Tale runs to almost three hours, and therefore is really only for true fans of the Bard. As a story, the first half is intense and psychological, a tale of jealousy and revenge, like Macbeth or Othello, though it failed to grip me like either of those. The staging all through is very minimalist, and most of this first half consists of actors talking on an almost bare set. Jeremy Kemp and Robert Stephens did their best as Leontes and Polixenes, but neither were compelling enough to really engage me in the story. I have thoroughly disliked Anna Calder-Marshall any time I have seen her before (as Cordelia in Lear, Cathy in Wuthering Heights, and in an episode of Inspector Morse), but here she was actually quite good, providing a very restrained and dignified Hermione.

The second half had more variety; romance, comedy, drama - and some of the younger actors were impressive. Robin Kermode, as Florizel, looked like Coldplay's Chris Martin, and was a convincing Prince Charming; Perdita (Debbie Farrington) was very pretty and Paul Jesson provided plenty of silliness as the Clown. However, the simple sets meant that it remained very much a play, and failed to really draw me in; even had I been prepared for the 3 hour running length, I would have found it went on too long.

Overall, this is a generally well-made Shakespeare production, but not very enjoyable as entertainment nor convincing as drama. Suitable for students, or Shakespeareans, but not calculated to please the general viewer.

It didn't help that the sound quality was quite poor in parts, though that may have been a problem with my disc or system.

A fascinating play in which Shakespeare follows a simple pattern of his but multiplies the variations on that pattern. Two king brothers Leontes and Polixemes get into some row about Leontes' wife who is accused by Leontes to be an unfaithful adulteress with his brother. That accusation causes a severe punishment from the Gods: their son Mamilius dies, and then his wife Hermione dies but he had banned the daughter she had gotten then, mind you from him is spite of his accusations, and sent one of the four (mark that number) noblemen of his court, Antigonus, to expose her to wild beasts but in fact Antigonus is killed by a bear and the daughter called then Perdita is retrieved from the wild by a shepherd. Antigonus was the husband of the midwife who delivered the daughter of the Queen. Leontes had also sent a second of his noblemen after his brother Polixemes to poison him, which that nobleman Camillo will not do and he will shift allegiances.

We jump then from Sicilia, Leontes' kingdom, to Bohemia, Polixemes' kingdom and the shepherds there, "sixteen summers" later, of course will I say: 4 is good, 8=4x2 is perfect so you can imagine what 16=4x4=8x2 can be: heaven. And heaven it is. Polixemes' son Florizel is courting the shepherdess Perdita. The father, Polixemes, and his adviser, Camillo, under disguise, find out. Camillo will play the double agent in the two directions: securing a diplomatic mission to Florizel from his father in Sicilia and Perdita could go along and they could be married in Sicilia, and at the same time the Shepherd who raised Perdita manages to bring to Polixemes the evidence of the royal origin of Perdita and then Camillo and Polixemes plus the Old shepherd and his son just known as the clown follow suit and arrive in Sicilia just after the two young people.

All that is so well done that the suspense is always perfect and strong, though we know what is going to happen. That's Shakespeare's art: he knew how to sustain suspense till the last minute.

And he can finish with the correction of the evil imposed by Leontes a long time ago, it is true with a little bit of magic that will revive Hermione, the Queen, from her stone statuesque avatar, or likeness.

The main people who are reunited are Leontes, Polixemes, Hermione, Perdita, Florizel, hence five people, a satanic pentacle. But six couples are also reunited balancing thus the pentacle with a symbol of Solomon's wisdom: Leontes and his brother Polixemes, Leontes and his Queen Hermione, Hermione and her daughter Perdita, Leontes and his daughter Perdita, Perdita and Florizel, and finally Florizel the run away son and his father Polixemes.

But he adds to these six couples two more to reach eight and hence the reunion of sixteen people, two by two, with the nobleman Camillo and the nurse and midwife Paulina, and the Old Shepherd and his son the Clown who are the beneficiaries of the generosity of the two kings, and the son is made noble on the same occasion. And we reach there the absolute perfection of 16, heaven on earth.

What are the tragic and dramatic elements Shakespeare purifies: the two brothers (Hamlet), the poison between them, the distribution of flowers by Perdita (Ophelia), the exposed baby (a Greek and Germanic classic), the false accusation against a wife (many instances), the rebellious son and his elopement (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and so many others) the jealousy of a husband (Othello and Desdemona), the lost child finally re-found (the Tempest, Twelfth Night, and a few others) and of course the elimination of all the participants in the disturbance of the balance of time that are here most of them revived, re-found and reunited.

The peddler selling ballads is not typically Shakespearian though we may think of Romeo and Juliet and the minstrel in the dance but in the same period, one or two years later, Ben Jonson will use the same trick in Bartholomew Fair. So what makes Shakespeare and this production of The Winter's tale different? The rhythm which is very intense and the outside setting which is always the same except for the color, painting, decoration and it is very geometrical with one alley between two triangular blocks. Yet Perdita who looks nearly her age, 16, seems younger than Florizel who should be the same age. But that is a slight detail. I guess it is not easy to get teenage actors who can fill up these roles.

This constantly broken pattern, rejuvenated by some variation, and yet always present behind makes this play stand out.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

The film gives a better understanding of Shakespeare's play, thanks to the talent of the interpreters.It's quite long (about 3 hours)but it's certainly worth watching.