Monday 23rd until Saturday 28th November 2009 @ Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol

We are introduced to The Winter’s Tale early on by Mamillius; “A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins.” What follows is a dark, tragic fairytale of a king whose jealous imagination provokes him to cast off his best friend, imprison his wife and neglect his son and newborn daughter to their deaths. It’s not all doom and gloom though; for all the dark violence here, Shakespeare throws us several comic characters and some scenes of frivolous gayety. This stylistic to-ing and fro-ing, combined with the action being set across two very different lands and two acts that are set 16 years apart, makes for quite a difficult, “problem” script but this co-production clears all these hurdles impressively and manages to get the balancing act just about right.

The production’s shining light is the quality of its performances across the board. The actors have been well cast and (ignoring James Buller’s wooden Polixenes) all put on faultless performances, with particular mention for the fiery Vince Leigh, who manages to weigh the anger and sorrow of King Leontes perfectly, and also the hilarious John Hodgkinson whose cheeky and charming Autolycus is a joy to watch.

The show however is let down in its detail: The lighting design is poor and really doesn’t work in the Tobacco Factory’s small theatre and, irritably, there seems to be no consistency whatsoever between the show’s set, props or any of its costumes. In large scenes this is particularly distracting as we are presented with a confused mishmash of 1920s dinner jackets, modern summer dresses, charity shop woollen hats, American pinstriped suits, worn out English twee jackets and the odd costume that looks like it’s been rented from a cheap fancy dress hire. At one point Autolycus pickpockets two different characters and ends up with modern paper dollars in one hand and classical gold coins in the other! You are forever left guessing what era or country we are supposed to be in.

The production is not without its faults and there were a couple of clichés in the directing I could have lived without but it is saved by its very strong acting, impeccable storytelling and, on balance, it is a very enjoyable watch.

www.tobaccofactorytheatre.com

Matt Whittle