The Winter's Tale Review (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon)

25 July 2025 I 19:15 I Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite

The highly prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company front their 2025 summer season with an apocalyptic and searing revival of The Winter's Tale. A tragicomedy of brutality and myth, Yaël Farber's RSC debut is a visionary sensation, exposing the femininity of the natural world and the cyclical structure of rebirth. Following contemporary trends of dusky, bleak minimalism, Farber's directorial majesty seeks an existentialist yearning for life, moderately Beckettian, in which humanity itself is devastating.

Identified by a singular suspended moon, Soutra Gilmour's stage design is sparse yet violently impactful. Personifying Queen Hermione's plight, the moon's symbol of innocence grows ever cold through Sicilia, imbued with crimson swirls as her purity is accused and tainted. Journeying to Bohemia, a bleak setting transforms into a scorching sun, latching itself to Hermione's daughter Perdita as hope is reincarnated. The metaphorical transitions between the moon and sun give glory to the earth's seasons and the strength of renewal.

Having a female director at the helm is crucial in placing Hermione in the centre of a savaged world, refusing to make a spectacle of Bertie Carvel's erratic and petulant Leontes. Madeline Appiah radiates serenity, locating the Queen's immaculate grace. Her trial for treason, soon sending Sicilia into mourning, is deeply moving. Appiah's text work is delicate and rhythmic, as audiences never strain to comprehend Shakespeare's text, her anguish universally coherent.

On the surface, Gilmour's costume designs share a monochromatic likeness to one another, yet their purpose is striking. Appiah's entrance for the trial witnesses Hermione's breasts leaking with milk in an evocative emblem of mother nature, the maternal desire to defend her own. Later doubling as the infamous bear, Hermione carries forth the beast's severed head as she becomes a vehicle for the King's rage.

First introduced to John Light's Polixenes, his figure is shirtless in a masterfully primitive wrestling match, later donning a grey vest and further exposing more skin than others. Enhancing his hypermasculinity that threatens King Leontes, the visual want for male dominance is commanding.

Almost the entirety of this production is underpinned by a foreboding, often threatening live soundscape composed by Max Perryment and designed by Dan Balfour. Heavily characterised by drums and deep string instruments, Sicilia's atmosphere remains unsettled with an icy sharpness to the score.

Whereas Bohemia's sound is influenced by multicultural ceremony, Farber distancing herself from the original text to create compelling and jaw-dropping movement sequences (Imogen Knight) celebrating the harvest, led with hypnotising vocals from Songstress Rhianna Compton. With pyrotechnics and untamed freedom, the world will never see The Winter's Tale infused with such vigour.

The upstage void, cleverly positioned by lighting designer Tim Lutkin, allows figures to eerily appear and disappear in silhouette. A wide ensemble frequently provide the background for stage images, where bodies hold a dreamlike posture and always present in larger motifs.

Aïcha Kossoko and Matthew Flynn give remarkably assured performances as Paulina and Antigonus respectively. Kossoko's tempo is well-measured with great articulation, with her persecutory monologues driving such force, endlessly captivating to witness. Juxtaposing Flynn's vulnerability as Antigonus, his empathetic rendition of the role accesses such a desperate empathy within Farber's dystopia.

The success in the RSC's 2025 revival of The Winter's Tale relies on its otherworldly, at times grotesque reimagining. Having studied and performed Shakespeare's lesser-known story with the University of Lincoln myself, Farber's direction has unlocked an entirely original and visceral onslaught of the natural world, that I had never known to exist. Never mind five, this production is worthy of a million stars.

Hugely grateful to the RSC for inviting me to this life-changing adaptation.

Production images and tickets: https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-winters-tale/