Shakespearean gamble pays dividends for Oak Brook's First Folio
William Shakespeare's “The Winter's Tale” is often categorized as a “problem play” since it doesn't neatly fit labels as a comedy or tragedy. The play also poses challenges thanks to its odd dramatic structure, incongruous settings and sometimes strange production demands — particularly the infamous stage direction of “Exit, pursued by a bear.”
First Folio Theatre has taken a risk presenting “The Winter's Tale” as its big summer outdoor Shakespeare production on the grounds of the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook. But the gamble has paid off nicely with plenty of tense dramatic scenes balanced by genuinely touching moments.
Shakespeare essentially cribbed the plot for “The Winter's Tale” from Robert Greene's 1588 book “Pandosto” about a king who publicly accuses his queen of adultery. Shakespeare strangely switched around the original's two main locations so that anyone who knows their geography will laugh at how the chilly first part takes place on the Mediterranean island of Sicilia (Sicily), while the other location is a sunny and coastal Bohemia (largely in what is now the landlocked Czech Republic).
But adapter and co-director Hayley Rice has smartly edited Shakespeare's text down so “The Winter's Tale” is emotionally concentrated and dramatically on point. Rice frames her two-act cutting of the play by having the narrator known as “Time” (Lexi Alioto) appear at the opening so her mid-play appearance announcing the passage of 16 years isn't such a structural jolt. Rice also sacrifices the tangential comedy schtick involving the crooning pickpocket peddler Autolycus, even though the character is often a big audience favorite.
Trained clown and First Folio regular Kevin McKillip would likely have been an excellent Autolycus, but Rice and co-director Alison C. Vesley instead cast him as the jealous King Leontes. McKillip, who made a memorable King Richard III a few seasons back, is equally at home as the irrational Leontes. He suspects that his wife, Queen Hermione (Melissa Carlson), is pregnant with the child of his best friend, Polixenes, the visiting King of Bohemia (Kevin Theis).
Carlson wonderfully reveals Hermione's shock at her husband's accusations, but she truly comes into her own during her dignified protestations of innocence amid so much suffering at the play's dramatic show trial. Anyone who knows their English history will see parallels in Hermione's situation to King Henry VIII's treatment of his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Supporting cast members also have plenty to chew on dramatically as their characters weigh their consciences when pushed into uncomfortable situations facing up to slanderous rumors about the queen. Both Kyle Haden and Diana Coates embody the dignity and authority of their roles as the honorable Sicilian lord Camillo and the noblewoman Paulina, who is brave enough to forcefully speak truth to power.
Directors Vesley and Rice make great casting decisions in the doubling (and some cases tripling) up of actors' roles. There's a nice bit of synchronous family casting with Ann Marie White as both the boy prince Mamillius and his spirited-away sister, Perdita, at age 16. Michael Joseph Mitchell also has plenty of fun as a boastful plot-forwarding Gentleman, a lovingly parental Shepherd and the nobleman Antigonus, who gets chased offstage by that aforementioned bear — depicted by First Folio in the form of an oversize puppet.
Costume designer Rachel Lambert greatly assists with the play's contrasts, creating regally restrained winter uniforms for the Sicilian court to match the coldhearted situations while offering more colorful and loosefitting peasant garb for the jovial sheepshearing festival in Bohemia. Scenic designer Angela Weber Miller and lighting designer Michael McNamara also work well in tandem to starkly illustrate the moods of the play's two locales.
On the page, “The Winter's Tale” is full of fantastical situations and structural issues that strain credibility. But as richly realized in performance by First Folio Theatre, the play defies the dramatic odds by being a moving piece of theater that emphasizes forgiveness and the importance of countering injustice.
“The Winter's Tale”
★ ★ ★
<b>Location:</b> First Folio Theatre at Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st Street and Route 83, Oak Brook, (630) 986-8067 or <a href="http://firstfolio.org">firstfolio.org</a>
<b>Showtimes:</b> 8:15 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; through Aug. 9
<b>Tickets:</b> $29-$39; $25-$35 seniors
<b>Running time:</b> Two hours and 20 minutes with one intermission
<b>Parking:</b> Nearby free lots
<b>Rating:</b> Largely for general audiences, though there are accusations of adultery