A Tale for Winter

Published Wednesday 24 October 2007 at 12:00 by Susan Elkin

I usually find Shakespeare rewritten or dumbed down in the interests of ‘accessibility’ pretty dispiriting, but this time I need not have worried. Shakespeare is safe with Nona Shepphard, whose intelligent, ingenious play is a fascinating interpretation of the events in The Winter’s Tale through its three youngest characters - Clown, Perdita and Mamilius.

Shepphard’s fine script uses flashbacks and ‘let’s pretend’, moving seamlessly in and out of Shakespeare’s original text. Its emphasis is on all those topical issues such as family break-up, jealousy, abuse and having suddenly to adjust to newly found biological parents and siblings. Change the names and it could be a story in The Sun.

Caolan Byrne is outstanding as Clown, the warm, caring son of the shepherd who finds the abandoned baby Perdita and brings her up as his own. When he fears he’s been usurped by Perdy’s natural brother, we really feel his anguish. He leaps effortlessly into other temporary roles such as an imagined, angry Leontes too. Then there’s Daniel Naddafy’s poignant, elfin Mamilius, who dies of a broken heart. He too adopts other short roles, notable for excellent voice work. Kananu Kirimi’s fresh-faced, sweet-voiced Perdy has unusual emotional depth and beautifully modulated vocal colour.

The dance scene makes good theatre. So do the several impeccably staged chases and fights, the indispensable bear and a sort of circular dressing up box which doubles as the set’s main feature.

Good as it was to see audience primary school children enjoying what was probably their first experience of Shakespeare, the insightful A Tale for Winter also has plenty to offer older students studying The Winter’s Tale. Otherwise, just lap it up as a piece of high quality theatre.