Winter's Tale

I'm doing the Critic-O-Meter for Winter's Tale right now, and I came across this review in Backstage which has the following to say about the play itself:

Some dramaturgical reckoning is necessary when we begin in the land of psychological drama and segue to the world of fake bears and fake beards. The most successful productions I've seen amp up the early drama to outrageous proportions -- or simply cut most of it, turning the Sicily section into an extended prologue. You could lop an hour off this production's running time and still not come in under two, and while this would be dramatic change, you can argue this production could do with more in the way of drama.

To which all I can say is WHAT?!?!?  The first three acts aren't the problem with Winter's Tale, it's Act Iv that's the "problem" that has to be reconciled with the rest of the show.  Cutting the first three acts into an extended prologue would be a terrible dramaturgical decision, it'd be totally cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.  Four of the play's five acts take place in Sicily.  Act IV scene 3 is a pretty bold theatrical experiment on Shakespeare's part, one that's still unsettling to this day.  

It seems clear to me that if you're going to cut, it is in fact Act IV, Sc. 3 that needs the trimming.  It's the longest scene in all of Shakespeare, longer than any full act in the rest of the play and longer than full acts in most of his other plays.  It contains multiple musical numbers and complex intrigue, much of which involves characters who we don't care about who won't appear later on in the play.  Add into it that Shakespearean comedy is far harder to do well than tragedy since it relies on dated senses-of-humor, and if for nothing other than sheer pragmatism, Act IV, Sc. 3 needs to cut the pruning.

(I should also say... The first three acts of Winter's Tale are amongst my favorite in Shakespeare, bar none. There's a relentlessness to them that's still thrilling and terrifying today, and the speech about drinking the wine and seeing the spider is magnificent).

Comments

[Scott Walters]

I fell in love with "Winter's Tale" after seeing my stepson play Leontes at Illinois State in the fall. It seems like such a rich, rich play. The mistake so many make is in focusing on Leontes to the exclusion of Paulina. Take a look at that final scene -- what does Paulina make Leontes do before she will un-freeze his wife? The scene you speak of provides the contrast, and like King Lear shows us another father making a mistake of a similar kind to Leontes. The audience enjoys the sunlight -- the shadows arrive again soon enough.

[Performance Monkey]

Absolutely agree - the opening movement of The Winter's Tale rushes headlong into disaster in a way that catches your throat. But even the apparently baggy final acts work well in the theatre, in my experience. Those late plays are a real challenge to dramaturgy - they break all the rules, drop characters for ages, introduce new plot strands, play havoc with time and place and logic. Yet emotionally they are wholly involving - even mad Pericles buffets you between tears of joy and dread as one damn thing happens after another.