Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

Winter’s Tale
This is the third time I’ve seen The Winter’s Tale here at Ashland. There are some wonderful scenes in the play, especially in the second half.
The basic plot is:

• The king of Sicilia, Leontes, is entertaining his boyhood best friend, the king of Bohemia, Polixenes. Observing what everyone else deems innocuous wordplay between his wife, Hermione, and Polixenes, Leontes develops a precipitous and intense jealousy, and orders his closest retainer to poison Polixenes. The retainer, taken aback at Leontes’ distemper, warns Polixenes and they both flee Sicilia. Havoc ensues as Leontes accuses his queen of adultery, his son and only heir somehow dies, Hermione dies of some kind of apoplexy, he orders that his baby daughter, whom he suspects of being the issue of Hermione and Polixenes, be borne to a remote seashore and there abandoned. He is left alone, bitter, confused and bereft.
• Meanwhile, in Bohemia, a shepherd and his son come upon the (now) foundling daughter, and the shepherd adopts her (enticed by a wad of gold secreted in the bundle). Years later, Polixenes’ son is found to be visiting in the country with a shepherd’s daughter of unusually regal bearing. His father finds out, comes to the country in disguise to see what’s up, yadda yadda. You can read the details at Wikipedia.

The switch to the country scene, and the human scale it offers in contrast to the machinations of the court, is a homage or invocation of the pastoral commonplace celebrated memorably by Philip Sydney, and reminds me of the transition found in As You Like It when everyone cavorts off to the forest of Arden.
My problems with the play (as it’s written, not necessarily how it’s performed) have been:

• I’ve had trouble buying into the sudden jealousy of Leontes. This production, however, sold me, and I think it was due to a powerful performance by the actor playing Leontes. I was as riveted to the first half of this production as I was delighted by the second half.
• The statue scene at the end seems a little ghoulish, and definitely over-long. I’m not sure that, at the height of a reconciliation and celebration, I would choose to hie me and my guests off to a wax museum to visit the likeness of my ex.

I loved the sheep-shearing party in this production, as it incorporated a very affecting dance sequence.
Not sure I need to see this a fourth time for a while, but I’m glad I saw this one.