The Winter’s Tale
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by James Lapine
The Winter’s Tale is the story of a jealous king's tyrannical treatment of his family and his kingdom. In the wintery kingdom of Sicilia, where the play begins and ends, King Leontes is so wracked with jealously that he rejects both Apollo's command and the advice of his courtiers and publicly repudiates his innocent wife, Queen Hermione, for committing adultery with his friend Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. While in the throes of his passionate distemper, Leontes also renounces his young son and heir, who dies of grief, and orders his infant daughter abandoned in the wild. Overcome by the injustice of it all, the wretched Queen also succumbs, shocking Leontes out of his blind passion.
The Winter’s Tale
Joseph Papp Public Theater/Anspacher Theatre
February 21, 1989 - April 9, 1989
Photos by Martha Swope
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James Lapine, Director
by William Shakespeare
Joseph Papp, Producer
The Public Theater, Producer
Jason Steven Cohen, Associate Producer
Barbara Carroll, Executive Assistant
William Finn, Music
Michael Starobin, Music
David Evans, Musical Director
John Arnone, Set Designer
Franne Lee, Costume Designer
Beverly Emmons, Lighting Designer
Bob MacDonald, General Manager
Richard Kornberg, Press Representative
Karen Armstrong, Production Stage Manager
Buzz Cohen, Stage Manager
Andrew Mihok, Production Manager
Seymour Red Press, Music Coordinator
Rosemarie Tichler, Casting -
Jesse Bernstein: Mamilius
Rob Besserer: Harlequin
Graham Brown: Antigonus
Michael Cumpsty: Time/Lord
MacIntyre Dixon: Archidamus
Jennifer Dundas: Perdita
Albert Farrar: Cleomenes
Denise Faye: Ensemble
Peter Jay Fernandez: Dion
Cynthia Friberg: Ensemble
Bertina Johnson: Emilia/Dorcas/2nd Lady
Raymond Kurshal: Ensemble
Tom McGowan: Clown
Kathleen McNenny: Mopsa/1st Lady
James Olson: Camillo
Mandy Patinkin: Leontes
Frank Raiter: Jailer/Officer/Servant
Christopher Reeve: Polixenes
Rocco Sisto: Autolycus
Michael Traynor: Servant/Mariner
Diane Venora: Hermione
Graham Winton: Florizel
Alfre Woodard: Paulina
Understudies:
John Madden Towey: Autolycus / The Old Shepherd
Reviews & Features
''I only hope I'm presenting the play respectfully,'' says the diffident director of the new production of ''The Winter's Tale'' that opens on Tuesday at the Public Theater. ''It is a very dense and difficult play to get into,'' he says of this dark comedy from Shakespeare's late romantic period. ''So, instead of approaching it backwards, with a heavy concept, I just worked to make the story clear.''