I realise it is very nearly October, and that it’s been well over a month since my friend Molly and I trekked over to Stratford Upon Avon (ironically, from Stratford, London) to see The Winter’s Tale.
We booked to see this production because we are huge fans of John Light, probably best known for his recurring role as the charming French thief Hercule Flambeau on the BBC’s cosy crime hit ‘Father Brown’. We saw that he was appearing in this production and impulse booked tickets, as we are wont to do. I booked a restricted view seat for £20 (more on that later) whilst Molly paid a whopping £70 for a seat in front of me, both in the Upper Circle of the RSC’s theatre.
As I say, Stratford London to Stratford-Upon-Avon and back in one day is a bit of a slog. I was on the tube at 6:30am to Baker Street, walking along the Marylebone Road to Marylebone station, dodging the interesting characters that populate central London that early in the morning. We met at the station and prepared ourselves for the long journey ahead. I checked the football fixtures and realised that some teams around Birmingham and the West Midlands were playing that day and so at least we were prepared for our journey to be busy.
We changed trains at a tiny little station in the middle of nowhere and made it to Stratford-Upon-Avon after about two and half hours. We had a couple of hours before we needed to be at the theatre so we decided to go and visit Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare and his family are buried. It was full of tourists but totally worth paying the £5 to see the altar where Shakespeare is buried. The church itself is beautiful — I’m not religious but I do like a pretty church — and it felt very odd to be stood there where Shakespeare had been and where his mortal remains lay.
We wandered into the town and made our way to the gift shop of the RSC. Molly and I are both what we would lovingly call ‘trinket-pilled’, and so we treated ourselves to a few little things. I bought a pin badge for my backpack reading ‘Prone to Mischief’ and a poster for the production, which now hangs in my bedroom. Then, we headed to the bar for a pre-show drink, deciding that 1pm was a perfectly acceptable time to start drinking, considering we were about to watch our favourite actor in the flesh for the first time.
We made our way up to the upper circle and we overheard an usher saying that it was going to be very empty. My restricted view seat wasn’t bad by any means but I held out hope that I would have a free seat next to me to move into. As it was, I had ten free seats either side of me so I moved more into the middle of the row, having a perfect view. I think I’d have paid at least £100 for the seat I sat in — this is the magic of the matinee! The stalls looked very full though and I reckon the theatre was 75% full, which is pretty good for a matinee a week before the end of the run.
Neither of us knew The Winter’s Tale very well at all, so before we went in we read a quick plot synopsis — essential for a play as complicated as this. I’ll have a go at summing it up for you.
Leontes and Polixenes are best mates, have been their whole lives. Polixenes has been staying with Leontes and his wife Hermione (they’re the King and Queen of Sicilia and Polixenes is the King of Bohemia) for nine months but decides it is probably time he headed back to his own kingdom again. Leontes asks him to stay, and he says no. Hermione asks him to stay, and he agrees. Leontes is suddenly overcome with jealousy — why is Polixenes so quick to accept Hermione’s offer? Have they been having an affair? Is the child that Hermione is 9 months pregnant with even his? Is their older son even his? A courtier, sent to kill Polixenes by Leontes, instead warns him and they escape back to Bohemia. Leontes has Hermione imprisoned and put on trial. Whilst waiting for the trial, she gives birth to a daughter. Leontes initially wants the baby killed but eventually relents to having her abandoned on a beach somewhere. Then, it is up to the Gods whether she is found or whether she dies. Hermione is brought to trial, and they find out during it that their elder son has died. Hermione collapses with grief, and dies too. Then, word comes from the Oracle of Delphi (it’s easy to forget that this is nominally set in Ancient Greece) that Hermione was innocent, and that Leontes’ jealousy has lost him everything.
Sixteen years later, and we are in Bohemia. A girl, Perdita, found by shepherds and raised by them, falls in love with a boy. It turns out that he is the son and heir of Polixenes, who tries to break the pair up — his heir cannot marry a shepherd’s daughter. Then, though, they discover that Perdita is in fact the daughter of Leontes and Hermione, who was abandoned on a Bohemian beach. The young lovers run to Sicilia and are introduced to Leontes, who takes some convincing that Perdita is his daughter. They tell him that Polixenes wants to reconcile — which is not strictly true. Polixenes turns up and discovers that Perdita is Leontes’ daughter and approves the marriage. Leontes is super apologetic for the events of sixteen years previously. Paulina, a noblewoman and member of the court (she does a million different things throughout the plot) says she has a new statue of Hermione and invites them all to see it. They go and see it and Leontes is very moved — it is Hermione as she would have been in the present had she lived. Paulina tells Leontes that she can do something as long as he doesn’t have her arrested for witchcraft. He agrees, and then statue of Hermione appears to come to life (whether it actually does or not remains unsaid), and Leontes apologises to her and introduces her to Perdita.
I said it was complicated.
Bertie Carvel as Leontes and Madeline Appiah as Hermione were standout performances. I think and hope they will both be nominated for awards. I found Bertie Carvel in particular madly compelling on stage — I could hardly take my eyes off him and found for most of it that I forgot I was watching an actor, rather that I was actually watching a man destroy his whole life through jealousy. Shakespeare’s words flowed out of him so beautifully that it felt entirely natural. It was the same for Madeline Appiah, too. You cannot take your eyes off her — and not just because she’s beautiful. She is a commanding presence who held her own against Carvel’s Leontes.
Our beloved John Light played Polixenes and was fantastic, getting a few rare laughs from the audience when the play has a funny quip or two. Perhaps we are biased when we said we couldn’t keep our eyes off him — it was, after all, him we were there to see — but even so. Polixenes is not a particularly complicated character nor one with huge amounts of depth, but Light explored every element of the character that he did and did it beautifully.
The aesthetics of the whole production, too, were enchanting. Low level music, minimal set, neutral and simple costumes, allowed the acting and the words to sing through where it could have been overwhelmed. I believe it was the director Yael Farber’s debut production for the RSC and I hope it won’t be the last — it was visually stunning. I read a lot of reviews of the production before I went and some didn’t like the staging and that had worried me, but I found it actually added to the whole atmosphere of the production.
I must admit, our favourite thing about the RSC was being able to pre-order our interval drinks. Finding a cider waiting for me after an hour and a half of intense theatre was incredible.
We didn’t try and go to stage door — it’s always a bit awkward for matinees anyway — and we doubted we’d be able to keep our cool. Instead, we went and found the nearest Wetherspoons to digest our thoughts over a bowl of cheesy chips and to send a very long voice note to our friend Elizabeth, largely regarding John Light and the parts of the play where he was shirtless (we’re simple creatures and easily pleased).
We made our way home, picking up a very busy train at Leamington Spa full of very happy Coventry City supporters (having beaten QPR 6-1) but eventually we made it back to London and back to the other Stratford.
Neither of us had been to the RSC before, though I had been to Stratford-Upon-Avon once, and we loved it. The theatre is beautiful, the town is beautiful, the play was incredible.
We will most definitely be back (especially if they cast John Light in more things!).
