The Winter's Tale [TV] (1981)
Directed by Jane Howell

Film Review

The eerily fractured, fable-like quality of The Winter's Tale makes it particularly amenable to a more stylised approach such as that adopted by Jane Howell in her boldly minimalist production in the BBC Television Shakespeare series.  The shift from the more conventional design of previous productions in the series (strongly influenced by actual period design and contemporary artwork) towards something far more abstract is striking but effective, particularly as the sets so vividly evoke the change in mood and the seasons.  The wintry melancholia of the play's first acts, so redolent of the archetypal Shakespearean tragedy, gives way to a startling representation of springtime and renewal, an affect that is ingeniously achieved by simply redressing the same basic set.

The set design is certainly a talking point but it is by no means the thing that makes the production so memorable.  As ever, it is the quality of the acting on which the success or failure of the play hangs, and The Winter's Tale boasts some of the most compelling performances in the series. Jeremy Kemp is particularly enthralling as Leontes, one of the few great tragic figures in the Shakespearean canon to be offered a chance at redemption. With his remarkable presence and an inordinate capacity for monopolising the spectator's attention, Kemp dominates the first half of the play, to the extent that other exemplary performances can only really be appreciated on a second viewing.  It's hard to overlook Margaret Tyzack's feisty portrayal of Pauline but Anna Calder-Marshall's Hermione and David Burke's Camillo only come into their own in the play's second half, such is the reward for their more subtle approach to their characters.

Subtlety is one charge that certainly cannot be made against Rikki Fulton, whose larger-than-life persona makes his character, the roguish clown Autolycus, the focal point of much of the second part of the play.  The Scottish comedian is fun to watch but he does have a nasty habit of upstaging his co-performers, even gate-crashing another character's aside in one scene.  In the one part of the production that appears under-directed, or at least under-rehearsed, the likeably cheeky Fulton distracts from some obvious technical flaws - jarring recording breaks, erratic vision mixing and poor blocking of crowd scenes.  (The less said about the hysterically funny bear the better.)  Once the chaos of the sheep-shearing feast and frolics are out of the way the production resumes its more dignified course, leading to the mystical scene of Leontes' reunion with Hermione, which is spellbinding despite being totally ludicrous.  Having successfully negotiated one of the most problematic of Shakespeare's 'problem plays' Jane Howe would return to direct some of the Bard's other challenging works, Richard III (1983) and Titus Andronicus (1985), and a superb production of all three parts of Henry VI (1983).

Film Synopsis

Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, has enjoyed visiting his old friend Leontes, King of Sicilia, but decides he must return to his own country.  After Leontes has failed to persuade Polixenes to prolong his stay his wife Hermione succeeds, prompting the king to suspect that she has been pursuing an adulterous affair with the Bohemian ruler.  Overtaken by paranoid jealousy, Leontes instructs one of his courtiers, Lord Camillo, to murder his old friend, but Camillo betrays him and flees with Polixenes.  Hermione is thrown into jail as a traitor and her new born daughter is disowned by Leontes as the bastard child of an illicit relationship.  Lord Antigonus persuades his king not to slay the infant but must abandon it in some desolate place.  Once Hermione's innocence has been proclaimed by the Oracle of Delphi Leontes realises his error, but not before his queen and son meet with an untimely death.  Meanwhile, unbeknown to the king, Leontes' rejected child is found by a kindly shepherd and raised as his own daughter, Perdita.  Sixteen years on, Perdita loses her heart to Prince Florizel, son of the King of Bohemia.  When Polixenes learns that his son and heir is betrothed to a common shepherdess he threatens her adopted father with death and forbids Florizel to set eyes on Perdita again...