The reviews are in for "The Winter's Tale"

Posted at 11:41 AM on February 9, 2011 by Marianne Combs
Filed under: Criticism, Theater

The Winter's Tale at the Guthrie Theatre
Photos by T. Charles Erickson

The Guthrie Theater presents "The Winter's Tale" on it's thrust stage through March 27. Known as one of William Shakespeare's "problem plays" the story is split in half between two countries over the course of 16 years. But according to these reviews, "The Winter's Tale" isn't a problem at all...

From Rohan Preston at Star Tribune:

There would be less heartache and injustice in the world if more people had the courage of Paulina in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale." As played with fearlessness and deep moral authority by Helen Carey at the Guthrie Theater, Paulina speaks truth to power powerfully.

With the help of Sicilian lord Camillo (Bob Davis), Paulina helps set things right in Jonathan Munby's lovely, lusty, and a tad overdrawn production that opened Friday in Minneapolis.

From Rob Hubbard at Pioneer Press:

William Shakespeare never wrote a play as bipolar as "The Winter's Tale." Its first half is a chilling drama of power, paranoia and an obsession that damages everything it touches. Then the play executes a whiplash-inducing U-turn into romantic comedy, its characters donning disguises and waxing whimsical about love and theft.

...It's unlikely that you'll come away feeling "The Winter's Tale" deserving of a place alongside Shakespeare's masterpieces. But the talented cast makes music with his poetic language, while the designers deliver one interesting idea after another.

From Jay Gabler at TC Daily Planet:

In contrast to the Acting Company's Comedy of Errors--recently seen on the Guthrie's McGuire Proscenium Stage--this Winter's Tale dons Shakespeare's unparalleled language like it's slipping into a perfectly-fitting glove. The line readings sound natural and there's no problem following the actors' meaning: the cast members glory in the clever and sometimes farcical plot.

With its lucid, compelling, gleefully entertaining presentation of a classic story, The Winter's Tale has it all. It's only February, but I'm going to call it: this will likely prove to be one of the best shows of the year.

From Max Sparber at MinnPost.com:

It's great. It moves along at a tremendous pace, and benefits from terrific performances. Helen Carey will be singled out in every review published, and with cause. She plays Paulina, whose function in this play is to defend the virtue of the accused queen, and Carey brings a regal sort of rage to her role, as though she were one of those very proper English headmistresses that you daren't cross. She's all moldering stares and withering comments, and she's somehow both heroic and terrifying. But I should point out that there really isn't a weak performance in the play. Especially good, among many, is Guthrie regular Bob Davis, playing Camillo, the jealous king's right hand man and, for the sake of justice, his betrayer. Davis has a weary, wry humor about him, and, in some ways, he's our guide through the play's shift in tone -- when the action shifts to the pastoral romance, he's there as well, grounding it.

Like a lot of Shakespeare, this production takes great liberties with the approximate date in which it's set, which usually annoys me -- it often is gimmicky at best, and sometimes gives me the impression that the director doesn't trust Shakespeare enough to just throw people into togas or farthingales and let the story do the work. And so this production, which opens on New Year's Eve with a group of tuxedo-clad men and evening-gown-beclad women dancing the twist to Christina Baldwin singing popular standards, seemed like it might be equally guilty. But director Jonathan Munby, in his first gig at the Guthrie, does trust Shakespeare -- he's exceptionally precise in his direction, communicating the story as much through intelligent staging as through the performances.

And there is the same intelligence in his locating the play in the era of Kennedy's Camelot. This is, after all, about a king, played by St. Paul native Michael Hayden, whose underlings cannot rebuff his decisions, even when they are very bad ones, which has echoes of Kennedy's Camelot, and the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, it sets the later, pastoral action in the 1970s, and while the story is set in Bohemia, Munby sets it in bohemia -- a sort of rural countercultural utopia where everybody is dressed in bell bottoms and polyester and, in the morning, clumps of semi-undressed women will stagger out of a single tent as jug-band music plays. Aside from being great fun to look at, this is an effective device for signaling the play's tone shift -- the period between Kennedy and the early '70s represented an instantly recognizable epochal cultural shift.

From Brad Richason at Examiner.com:

From a psychological viewpoint, the Guthrie Theater is to be commended simply for having the nerve to launch a February production with winter in the title. At this bitterly frigid time of year, risking that Minnesotans won't be repulsed by a reminder of the climate is no small gamble. Those that manage to look beyond the offending word, however, will be rewarded with a reinvigorating take on William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, one that uses irrepressible passions to restore enchantment to the season.

Marked by such continually shifting focus and tone, The Winter's Tale by all conventional logic shouldn't work...and yet the play not only works, it captivates. The genius of the gambit resides in Shakespeare's uncanny balancing of elements, the way the comedy plays off of the tragedy, each reinforcing the other with skilled verve. Demonstrating a deft understanding of the mixture, director Jonathan Munby creates a dynamic fusion of styles, alternating through passages both grim and fanciful.

So - have you seen "The Winter's Tale?" If so, what did you think? Share your review in the comments section.

The reviews are in for "Shirley Valentine"

Posted at 4:00 PM on February 9, 2011 by Marianne Combs
Filed under: Criticism, Theater

Cheryl Willis as Shirley Valentine

Shirley Valentine is a Liverpool housewife who leaves her drab life in search of something more, and finds sunshine and self-confidence in Greece. The one-woman play is on stage at the Jungle Theater through March 20. Thinking your life could use a little warmth and sunshine right now? Check out these reviews...

From Dominic P. Papatola at Pioneer Press:

It's a simple, appealing, sometimes bromidic tale, and a different and in some ways more difficult acting job than the Jungle's single-actor, multi-character extravaganzas: Rather than dazzling us with snippets of characters in short-attention-span succession, the actor in "Shirley Valentine" must create a single character with whom we don't mind spending a couple of hours.

...That ease is the key to Willis' lovely and engaging performance. Rather than being dazzled by the performer's technical proficiency, you're invited in as if a friend is telling you a story. It's not showy, but Willis' performance -- and the whole of the Jungle's "Shirley Valentine" -- is as warm and comfortable as a sun-kissed beach.

From Graydon Royce at Star Tribune:

Who doesn't want to get away? Perhaps it's the weather, perhaps it's more, but "Shirley Valentine" makes a persuasive case with us to break out of this dreary rut. Shirley, the Liverpool housewife of Willy Russell's one-woman play, runs off to holiday in Greece, but it's more than Mediterranean sun that she's after. She wants a new contract with life.

There. I feel much better now.

From Matthew A. Everett at TC Daily Planet:

The thing that saves Shirley Valentine from being completely self-indulgent is that Shirley is smart enough to understand her place in the world. Yes, she is the center of her own personal story, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world is required to kiss her butt and make sure all her wishes come true. Other people have lives, other people have wishes. Everyone is the center of their own story. No one else is required to play along with you, unless it suits them. At the same time Shirley finally understands that she's not born to always play second fiddle to the needs of her husband and children, that awareness includes an understanding that no one else is required to put her needs above their own. Shirley makes her own escape, and others are welcome to come along for the ride.

Is Shirley Valentine life-altering? No, but I don't think it means to be. Life-affirming? Certainly. It's good to be reminded every now and again not to let your life slip by you without savoring it. Some of us need a reminder more than others. For all those folks, it's a good thing Shirley Valentine is out there. After all, Shirley isn't just talking to the wall, she's talking to all of us, in the audience. The question behind the play is always: Why is she telling us this story, and why now? After we've heard Shirley's story, what are we going to do about it?

So have you seen the show? If so, what did you think? Share your review in the comments section.