William Shakespeare, Dame Judy Dench and Kenneth Branagh all wrapped up on stage is something to get very excited about and it’ll be coming together in a new production of The Winter’s Tale at the Garrick Theatre later this year. It’s sure to make for a lot of theatrical might, but with one of Shakespeare’s problem plays to contend with there’s still plenty to challenge even their acting skills.
The play will be opening at The Garrick on the 17th October 2015, running throughout a good proportion of the winter until the 16th January 2016. It’s the first of five plays that make up the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s debut season at the theatre with Harlequinade, The Painkiller, Romeo and Juliet and The Entertainer following it as it it continues on until late 2016.
The Winter’s Tale tickets start from as little as £15 in the cheap seats in the stalls and go up to £65 in the stalls, dress circle and grand circle, with boxes ranging from £50 to £95. You can book them online or call 0844 482 9673 for the box office. Performances will start at 7:30pm Monday to Saturday with Saturday and Wednesday matinees most weeks at 2:30pm.
For any theatre lovers out there not familiar with the story, it’s got nothing to do with a cosey family Christmas in England. Instead, it takes us to Sicily where old friends Leontes, King of Sicilia, and Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, are cast asunder when jealousy, suspicion and power combine.
Having spent the last nine months in Sicily spending time with his boyhood friend, Polixenes announces that he needs to get back to his homeland, much to the dismay of Leontes. When the Sicilian king sends his wife Hermione to persuade Polixnes to stay, he’s taken aback by how quickly she succeeds in the endeavor and so becomes convinced that the two have been at it like rabbits. Questioning everything, he goes insane with jealousy and the play deals with the aftermath of Leontes’ crazed actions.
However, it’s a play that has split experts because of its flip flop nature from the intensely tragic drama of the first half of the play followed by the comic romance of its ending. It makes for a baffling game of two halves, so expect to be a little taken aback by the quick fire change in direction.
Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn) will be taking to the centre stage as the vengeful and untrusting Leontes and Hadley Fraser (Coriolanus) will play his affronted Bohemian counterpart, while Judy Dench (Skyfall) takes on the role of Paulina, a noblewomen of Sicily who tries to quell the wrath of Leontes. The rest of the cast includes Tom Bateman as Florizel, Jessie Buckley as Perdita, John Colgrave Hirst as Clown, Michael Pennington as Antigonus and John Shrapnel as Camillo.
The Winter’s Tale is being directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh, as they continue their collaboration after the success of Macbeth in Manchester and New York. They’re joined by set and costume designer Christopher Oram in the production of the play.
A fair few of the performances are already sold out, so if you’re keen on seeing Dame Judy Dench star alongside Kenneth Branagh on stage then you should probably move pretty quickly. If you do end up missing out, there’s plenty more left in Branagh’s first season with Zoë Wanamaker (My Week With Marilyn) in Harlequinade, Rob Brydon (Future Conditional) in The Painkillers and Lily James (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) in Romeo And Juliet still to come.
