Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for Blanche McIntyre’s production, playing at the Shakespeare’s Globe until the 14th October.
The Stage: *** “Blanche McIntyre is a director of textual sensitivity and she brings clarity, intelligence and insight to the play’s complexities and contradictions.”
The Independent: *** “This is a solid production, but the quick-changing moods of Shakespeare’s late play could use a sprinkling of something more magical to make them come alive.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “But watching this Winter’s Tale is nevertheless a delight: Shakespeare at his most sad, his most human and his most joyful.”
Exeunt Magazine: “Generally speaking, it’s the performances that make Blanche McIntyre’s production of The Winter’s Tale. Along with Keen’s Leontes, there’s Sirine Saba who makes Paulina a force of elemental feminine energy and a counterweight against the injustice committed by the king. Hermione (Priyanga Burford) is a similarly dignified presence, the quiet stateliness of both women making the destruction of Leontes almost pitiful. The fourth great performance is by Nora Lopez-Holden as Perdita, whose halo-like headdress would have fitted right in at the 2018 Met Gala.
Please Mind the Blog: ***** “An enlightening production of a potentially troublesome play, fantastically well conceptualised & beautifully designed – complete with some memorable & scene-stealing performances.”
The Guardian: **** “Productions often choose to commit to lightness or darkness, but director Blanche McIntyre finds a third way by underlining the play’s clashing parts rather than obviating them, and showing the joins at the seams.”
The Times: ** “There are strong moments, yet overall it’s as if we have been let into the rehearsal room. Over three hours we need more guidance than this.”
A Younger Theatre: ” The Winter’s Tale is a story packed with emotional turbulence. But in this production, the highs aren’t as high, and the lows don’t fulfil their full potential to devastate and sadden.”
The Upcoming: “Blanche McIntyre’s take on The Winter’s Tale, a story of vengeance, redemption, loss and forgiveness is simple in its portrayal with, regretfully, mere glimpses of music throughout. Nevertheless, with James Perkins’ design and Natalie Pryce’s costume design compromising of a mix of modern and comically classic outfits – especially at the end with the appearance of the gentle jester – the play maintains a fresh, quirky and confident outlook, and would make for an enjoyable evening for all the family.”
Broadway World: *** “McIntyre has produced a solid production of a tricky play, with strong, witty and fierce female leads.”
Evening Standard: ** ” The usual rustic merry-making is downplayed, leaving the lengthy ramblings of trickster Autolycus (Becci Gemmell) feeling even chewier than normal. Not a dream show for a hot midsummer.”
Culture Whisper: *** “While the energy picks up in the second half of the play, it remains hard to spot what McIntyre’s direction brings to the text. Sure, this is a chance to enjoy Shakespeare’s text delivered purely – ideal for students and tourists in the audience – but the final, fist-pumping dance suggests more spark was intended for this production that ultimately got lost along the way.”
The Reviews Hub: **** “As the play draws to its close, the challenge facing McIntyre is to make the preposterous first plausible and then moving. She shows a delicate touch, sealing a revival which, if not exactly seasonal, is certainly assured.”
Stage Review: ***** “a superb and brilliantly performed production of Shakespeare’s ‘problem’ play.”
For more information visit: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on-2018/the-winters-tale