In the first act, the audience is taken back to an 1800s Civil War battlefield. Only the silhouettes of the musicians are visible as they use their instruments to battle soldiers against a dark background. The sounds of gunshots pierce the silent night. The violin is used as a fatal weapon to stab a soldier, who, in his last words, sings weakly for his family with a now-subdued band of musicians.
Though this scene is not included in the original plot of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, it succeeds in setting the gruesome tone of the Civil War, sending shivers along the audience’s backs.
Directed by Mary Mastandrea, this year’s Shakespeare play was set in the Civil War era. From hoop skirts and uniforms to a banjo and Abraham Lincoln, from southern accents to clogging and acrobatics, the details and acting were spectacular. However, the tie between the Civil War and the Shakespearean tale was not.
The story opens in Sicilia, the equivalent of the Union, in the court of Leontes (junior Robert Mast) on New Year’s Eve. Polixenes (junior Sean McDonough), Leontes’ childhood friend, is about to leave Sicilia for his own homeland, Bohemia, which represents the South. But Hermione (senior Tal Scully), Leontes’ pregnant wife, persuades him to stay. Seeing this, Leontes becomes sick with jealousy and convinced that his wife and Polixenes are lovers. Hermione is thrown into jail and gives birth to a baby girl named Perdita. Perdita is abandoned in the wilderness and is found and raised by an Old Shepherdess (sophomore Sophia Pouzyrev).
The plot jumps ahead 16 years, landing Perdita (sophomore Isabela Schettino) in the deserts of Bohemia, where she meets Polixenes’ son, Florizel (junior Dawaun Hardy). They fall in love, but Polixenes, enraged that his son is seeing a peasant’s daughter, forbids their marriage.
The rest resembles well-known Shakespearean plot elements: there is confusion, jealousy, guilt, love and reconciliation. In the end, the characters walk offstage with their conflicts resolved, leaving the audience with a warm feeling.
Several actors, specifically the Old Shepherdess and Autolycus (senior Jan Meese), managed to provoke laughter from the audience.
Pouzyrev, with her loud Southern drawl paired with eccentric movements (such as putting her feet up behind her head), caused a chuckle to ripple through the spectators whenever she appeared on stage. At the end of the play, when Pouzyrev appeared in more elegant attire, she acted in an embarrassing fashion; flicking her little white satin gloves and stomping her cane, she managed to take on the character of a ridiculous old woman.
Meese made use of his many talents throughout the performance: he played the banjo, guitar and directed the musicians. Watching him when the Shakespearean monologues got a bit too verbose was like watching a separate show. Actors like him didn’t let the show go dry.
The special details and set design in the performance alone were enough to make the show worth watching. The strobe effect when the bear came onstage to attack Antigonus after he abandoned the baby Perdita in the wilderness, as well as the beautiful giant sunflowers during the sheep-shearing festival, made for a professional-looking show.
The background sounds such as thunder, rain and guns added to the performance, making the show seem complete and well thought-out.
