(4) The Winter’s Tale

So, I jumped all the way down to the end of my list here and picked up The Winter’s Tale. The main motivation for this was the fact that it was playing in a local theater (I stole the above picture (which I absolutely love) from their website and am paying for it with the preceding plug. Seeing as I make nothing from this site and have no readers, I can’t imagine they would mind, right?). The run of this play at said theater was ending soon (last weekend) so I thought I would read/see this one earlier rather than later. Also, it’s winter time in these parts so why wouldn’t I read it now…and I’m mighty glad I did, as I thought this play was excellent, on many different levels.

It was a tale of rebirth and redemption, status and order, love and jealousy, mystery and beauty. It was a study of the darkness of extreme jealousy and the evil sickness of creeping suspicions. It was a play book-ended by births and middle’d by death. There was dancing. There was sheep-shearing. There were songs and, most importantly, there was a guy getting eaten by a BEAR! This thing had it all.

Part of what helped me enjoy this one was seeing it performed live. Obviously, there’s something “right” about seeing it acted in person, in front of you, as opposed to just reading it. Something intentional…so I will be trying to do this as often as is practical. However, I don’t want to lose focus here (this is a blog about reading, not watching Shakespeare’s plays, right), so the main analysis will still revolve around the writings. Think of the plays as live study guides then.