Robert Falls aptly updates Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale' at Goodman

“The Winter's Tale” - ★ ★ ★

Actor Dan Donohue's ginger hair stands out in director Robert Falls' affecting new production of Shakespeare's “The Winter's Tale.”

Donohue makes an unsettling Goodman Theatre debut in the role of King Leontes, an irrational and jealous ruler who bullies his court to accept his version of “truth.” And with Falls updating “The Winter's Tale” from a long-ago fairy tale time to a modern era much like our own, it's easy to draw parallels between the Bard's Sicilian monarch and a certain commander in chief - especially while watching the horrified reactions of Leontes' suited sycophants as he rants and rages.

But Falls' approach to Shakespeare's infamous “problem play” - with its wild shifts of tone and time - is not solely a stunt of political commentary. “The Winter's Tale” defies strict labels of tragedy and comedy, and Goodman's cast and crew lavish plenty of love and care on this drama toward its happy conclusion.

Most of the play's trauma falls in the first half, when the tyrannical Leontes accuses the pregnant Queen Hermione (Kate Fry) of committing adultery with his royal childhood friend, Polixenes (Nathan Hosner). Most courtiers dare not cross Leontes, and those who do are extremely brave.

Trusted adviser Camillo (Henry Godinez) flees to save his honor and hide, while the righteously indignant Paulina (Christiana Clark) confronts the king. Caught up in this fraught family dispute is child prince Mamillius (Charlie Herman, in a fun bear costume full of foreshadowing designed by Ana Kuzmanic).

In the first half, set designer Walt Spangler works well with lighting designer Aaron Spivey to suggest a chilly corporate world of surveillance amid oversized glassy panels. But when the action shifts to the pastoral Bohemia, the cast and crew go into campy comic overdrive as if to blot out the previous doom and gloom.

Longtime visitors of the Bristol Renaissance Faire who remember “Moonie the Magnif'Cent” will be pleased to see Philip Earl Johnson putting his many talents to use as Autolycus, a thieving minstrel on the make. Tim Monsion and Will Allan also have fun as a rustic father and son who rescue and raise the royal infant Perdita to be a shepherdess.

Amid so much silliness, there is seriousness in the romance between two young lovers. The teenage Perdita (Chloe Baldwin) is the object of desire for Florizel (Xavier Bleuel), who is playing hooky from his princely duties as Polixenes' son.

Falls directs the weird tragic/comic dichotomy of “The Winter's Tale” in different emotional extremes. He even goes so far as to mock some of the script's oddities, especially when the servants speedily summarize the drama in an expositional rush to get to the final “statue scene” of forgiveness. In addition, Falls punches up the text with an unnecessary expletive and contemporary groaner jokes for cheap laughs.

But Falls and his cast always strive to get to the emotional core of their characters. While some of the choices may be questionable in this unnervingly contemporary take on “The Winter's Tale,” so much more rings true than not.

<b>Location:</b> Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn Ave., Chicago, (312) 443-3800 or goodmantheatre.org

<b>Showtimes:</b> 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (also May 28), 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday (no matinee June 6), 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday (no evening shows June 2 or 9); through June 9

<b>Tickets:</b> $20-$80

<b>Running time:</b> About 2 hours and 15 minutes with intermission

<b>Parking:</b> Paid garages nearby and limited metered street parking

<b>Rating:</b> Largely for teenagers and older