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<\/a>Admittedly this writer\u2019s favorite Shakespeare romance, the play is set in motion by the jealous rage of Sicilia\u2019s King Leontes (film and TV star Billy Campbell), who suspects that his queen, Hermione (Natacha Roi), and their houseguest, Bohemia\u2019s King Polixenes (Paul Michael Valley), are having an affair, and further, that the child she carries almost to term is not his but Polixenes\u2019. Leontes orders Camillo (Cornell Womack) to kill the Bohemian king, and Camillo, sensing the wrong-headedness of this, flees and takes Polixenes with him.<\/p>\n
In addition to Hermione, Shakespeare\u2019s other strong woman is the fierce courtier Paulina (Angel Desai), whose husband, Antigonus (Mark Nelson), falls victim to the bear when he takes the spurned infant Perdita (played at 16 in Act II by Maya Kazan) to exile on the shores of Bohemia. Never mind that Bohemia has no coastline.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most tragic casualty of Leontes\u2019 rage is his son Mamillius (appealing and natural 12-year-old Jordi Bertran), who is torn from his mother. In Bohemia, Perdita is rescued and raised as his own daughter by an Old Shepherd (Mark Nelson), whose son is a Clown (Brendan Spieth). She falls in love with Florizel (A.Z. Kelsey), Polixenes\u2019 son. Uninvited to the harvest festival that will celebrate their engagement is a dastardly pickpocket named Autolycus (Paul Kandel), intent on foiling the play\u2019s happy ending and furious when he actually moves the plot toward a wondrous, magical denouement in Sicilia.<\/p>\n
Blessedly, all the actors speak the same language. To his credit, Edelstein uses many young actors from the Old Globe\/USD MFA program. Campbell, seen here previously in John Rando\u2019s 1997 production of \u201cThe Comedy of Errors\u201d and Brendon Fox\u2019s 2003 production of \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing,\u201d is impressive in limning a possible insanity defense for Leontes\u2019 actions. During Hermione\u2019s imprisonment he becomes wan and almost catatonic, and upon hearing news of and witnessing his loved ones\u2019 deaths he is convincing in his histrionic grief.<\/p>\n
Those who are able to push away their inner \u201cyes, but\u201d voices during a production of \u201cThe Winter\u2019s Tale\u201d are rewarded, despite having to endure the tedious clowns (the writer admits prejudice against bumpkins), intensified by Kandel\u2019s song-and-dance caterwauling and shtick.<\/p>\n
The directorial application of metronomes (tempus fugit) and a plethora of keyboards \u2014 including a charming, practical toy grand piano, an upright, a concert grand and even a rude pump organ \u2014 is enjoyable but stretched a bit beyond the metaphoric pale. Furthermore, the music sometimes obfuscates text.<\/p>\n
Music director Taylor Peckham visibly and excellently performs Michael Torke\u2019s brilliant original score, written for Edelstein\u2019s 2003 Broadway production, which originated at New York\u2019s Classic Stage Company. It puts one in mind of Gershwin on Satie and impending dissonance. Wilson Chin\u2019s scenic design is wondrous, especially as lighted by Russell H. Champa. Judith Dolan\u2019s sumptuous gowns are absolutely luscious, and Fitz Patton is the sound designer. Hopefully he will tweak the balance.<\/p>\n
Now that the Edelstein Old Globe directorial debut has come and gone, patrons look forward to a future rife with intelligence, excellence and stability.<\/p>\n
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