The first impression of the actual set that I had was that it was very dull, dark and solemn. It was a tiered stage with an arch on the top level. It was all painted black. This gave it a dreary, cold atmosphere, which supports the winter atmosphere. There was also a green backdrop with some silver trees, which added to the winter atmosphere but also gave it a more clear, somewhat pure outside feel, rather than just a black, dull atmosphere. The black of the stage set seemed to me to represent neutrality, because it was the beginning of the play and so the neutral part of the play. The two halves of the play had very different atmospheres. The first half, the winter, had ideas of death, anger, betrayal and jealousy, while the second half, the summer, had ideas of re-birth, reconciliation, love and forgiveness. The beginning and the very end are the only times when the atmosphere could be neutral. The beginning because nothing has happened yet, and the end because the two halves have balanced each other out.
Folk music was playing as we entered and I think it gave just the right mood. It was important throughout the performance. It was the music of the people, and it is warm and full of emotions. It made me feel part of the production in a way, rather than just a spectator. The music reflected the joyous fun of the sheep-shearing festival in Bohemia but it also reflected the rush of profound emotions in the courts of Sicilia. The folk music was also important in that it was a storytelling kind of music. This concept of storytelling was featured a lot in this performance of the play. The title of the play is ‘The Winter’s Tale’ which suggests a tale passed on from generations, rather than just a piece of drama shown to an audience. Also, Shakespeare has Mamillius telling a ‘Winter’s Tale’ to the Queen in the beginning of the play before she is taken away. In this performance of the play, the character of Time started the play off with the final scene of the unveiling of Queen Hermione. She was a cloaked figure with a hood that slightly shadowed her face. I found this very appropriate as Time is not really a person, but an abstract representation of how we see things that happen. Time was used as a narrator and a storyteller in this performance and so involved us (the audience) more. In Shakespeare’s version, Time only appears in Act IV. It is as if this whole play is seen through the memories of Time. She commented throughout the play on the different situations that the characters get themselves into. I found this very effective because I, as part of the audience, felt more connected and found it easier to understand what was going on.
They used many means to involve the audience more but I felt that the staging of the play created a kind of wall between the characters and the audience because it was an end on performance, but also because both the set and the audience were raked. This set up the feeling that we were watching a spectacle. This feeling of a wall between the audience and the characters was broken down any time there was a monologue or a soliloquy by one of the characters, such as in the court scene, or when Autolycus was letting the audience in on one of his plans to rob someone. During the court scene, Hermione and Leontes both addressed the audience, so that it was as if we were part of the court, we were the jury, so we felt more involved; we could judge whether we found Hermione guilty or not. But whether we found her guilty or not, did not matter, and I found that frustrating because the King Leontes was the judge, jury and plaintiff, and the audience could not change his decision. I disliked him because of his irrational behaviour and his inappropriate response to the oracle. I was frustrated even more by his status and tyranny. He was the highest judge and yet he showed total lack of judgement, and yet his subjects followed him unquestioningly. Matthew Bailey played Leontes very effectively as he was able to display the rapid swings of emotion that was a fundamental aspect of the King’s character. The only person who seemed to stand up to the King was Paulina. She was an independent woman with a mind of her own, who was played with sufficient power by Jacqueline McCrae. She seemed to be the only person who dared to stand on a higher tier than the King, which shows that she recognised how shallow this man had become and how her own status exceeded his at that time.
Leontes stood at the top level of the stage, which accentuated his high status and gave the impression that he was addressing a massive forum, when really, this problem was personal between Hermione and Leontes; it is not Hermione committing treason against the whole country. When Leontes argues the case to the court (us) he argues it directly to the audience, elevating it to a highly treasonous issue, but when Hermione argued her case, she argued straight at Leontes, bringing the problem back down to a personal level.
When Autolycus had a monologue with the audience, it made me feel very involved because we (the audience) knew something about Autolycus that the other characters in the play did not. In this way, we felt as if we were special because we were being let in on a secret so we wanted Autoycus to succeed in his plan. The dramatic irony made the scene all the more hilarious because we knew that Autolycus was going to steal from the shepherd’s son and Autolycus hid in the most obvious place. This self-evident nature made the scene funnier, as the shepherd’s son was such a fool that just could not see that Autolycus was a thief. I felt like shouting out the obvious to the shepherd’s son.
The last scene (and the beginning scene as they were the same) seemed to be one of the most effective scenes in the play. The tiers leading up to the statue give the feeling of a spectacle and that the statue of the Queen was somewhat angelic, as she stood on the highest tier, above everybody else. So when she comes to life, there is created, a real feeling of wonder and amazement at the supposed ‘magic’ of her re-birth. She has the highest status as Leontes kneels before her and is forgiven. He reaches out for her hand and when he touches it, he pauses and says simply, “It’s warm”. I felt that Matthew Bailey played this part very well as he managed to create the dramatic tension before the touch and portray the wonder and relief in his voice when he said these words, that touched my heart. This end scene is of overwhelming reconciliation and joy, but the first scene (which is the same thing) seems to be sadder, more solemn. Everybody stands on their own level, so it is like everybody is separate and mournful, like they were at a funeral. The way they used the last scene to begin the performance with, was very effective because it made me feel like I really wanted to find out why things ended up that way.
I found the design of the set of the play also very effective. I liked the use of the cyclorama; different colours were used at different times to represent the atmosphere of that moment, such as when Leontes suspected Hermione of betraying him, to represent the anger and jealousy that ensued. At this point the lights turned red but in some way also created shadows to represent how Leontes’ judgement was clouded by his anger. Sometimes, the curtains were drawn across the cyclorama, such as in the scene where the baby is brought to Leontes. This created the sense of secrecy. The use of different colours in costume to represent the different countries was effective as well. Purple was used for Bohemia and red for Sicilia. Consequently I found it easier to keep track of the characters and where they were from.
Contrary to what I had expected, I actually did find the performance very effective and most of the actors put on very convincing personalities of the characters. The Sixth Form and the Director found many ways to involve the audience more and bridge the gap, such as the newspaper boy, the narrator Time, and music. Also, the mix of comedy, tragedy and romance made the play an interesting, rich production.