Theater Review: "A Winter's Tale' at Hartford Stage

By Nancy Sasso Janis

As a Shakespeare lover/geek, I look forward to the time when Hartford Stage mounts a Shakespeare play. This season Hartford Stage welcomes Shakespeare back with “The Winter’s Tale,” under the direction of Melia Bensussen. The musical and magical production continues through May 7.

Bensussen and Managing Director Cynthia Rider write: “If a ‘sad tale’s best for winter,’ as young Mamillius will tell us at the beginning of this production, the journey of our ‘Winter’s Tale’ points us towards the hopefulness of spring.” The two describe this “grand yarn” as a “blend of the tragic, the comic, filled with music and joy–a fairy tale for the theater.”

This is a play with two sides, from the setting of Sicilia to Bohemia and spanning 16 years. The Sicilian Court opens the play. Equity actor Nathan Darrow (“Blue Bloods”) makes his Hartford Stage debut in the role of the jealous Leontes (the King of Sicily, and the childhood friend of the Bohemian King Polixenes,) and Equity’s Jamie Ann Romero, who was part of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” plays his beautiful and virtuous wife Hermione.

Young performer Jotham Burrello, who has worked at Rectory School and trained at Hartford Stage, plays the role of the young prince of Sicily, Mamillius, in a sailor suit and holds his own with the more seasoned actors.

Carman Lacivita, an Equity actor who was in the original Broadway cast of “Marvin’s Room,” plays Camillo, an honest nobleman, in his Hartford Stage debut. Lana Young shines in the role of a Sicilian noblewoman Paulina, while Equity actor Jeremy Webb portrays Antigonus, Paulina's husband.

Appearing in the countryside of Bohemia is Equity actor Omar Robinson in the role of Polixenes, the father of Florizel, played by Equity member and The Juilliard School graduate Daniel Davila, Jr. Webb, who appeared in “Seder” at this theater, returns as a shepherd, with John Maddaloni as Clown, the shepherd’s son, in his Hartford Stage debut.

Pearl Rhein is a delight as Autolycus, a roguish peddler, vagabond, and pickpocket, who in this case is also a musician. Rhein was part of “The Great Comet” and is credited with additional music in the digital program.

Equity actor Delfin Gokhan Meehan plays the grown up Perdita, wearing a great headpiece, in her Hartford Stage debut.

The BFA students from the Hartford Stage partnership with The Hartt School at the University of Hartford that appear in supporting roles include Andrew Black, Carson Timmons (“Fun Home” at TheaterWorks Hartford,) Hannah Moore, and Ana Laura Santana.

Because Bensussen adds live music whenever she can, there are some simple musical moments, performed by the actors onstage, with violin, guitars and choreography by Misha Shields is sparse. Liam Bellman-Sharpe served as music director of the original music and sound design by Pornchanok Kanchanabanca.

A tree figures prominently on the cover of the printed program and is a striking component of the otherwise stark scenic design by Cameron Anderson of simple benches That is, until the back of the stage area is effectively shuttered in black and changes the look completely. This part of the scenic design figures prominently in “exit pursued by a bear,” the moment that would have been for the Elizabethan audience the first part of the bridge to the “comic” that was to come.

Lighting designed by Evan Anderson uses the tree to cast lovely shadows. The lovely costumes designed by Whitney Locher have a somber, almost Dickensian tone for the first act. Excellent wig design was by Carissa Thorlakson, Ted Hewlett was the fight director, and Julie Foh was the voice and text coach.

In addition to some interesting briefs about the text, there is a helpful diagram of the worlds in this problem play, Shakespearean works that blend genres. The first three acts are filled with intense psychological drama, while the last two acts are comic and ultimately supply a (mostly) happy ending, minus the unjust (offstage) death of young Mamillius.

This performance runs approximately two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission. The production contains strobe lights and haze effect. What better way to celebrate Shakespeare than to see this play? Performances end May 7. Tickets: hartfordstage.org/the-winters-tale

Nancy Sasso Janis, writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local venues, posts well over 100 reviews each year. In 2016, her membership in the Connecticut Critics Circle began and her contributions of theatrical reviews, previews, and audition notices are posted not only in the Naugatuck Patch but also on the Patch sites closest to the venue. She recently became a contributor to the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Her weekly column and theatre reviews appear in the Thursday Weekend section of the paper.

Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and Connecticut Theatre Previews and on Twitter @nancysjanis417 Check out the NEW CCC Facebook page.