Shakespeare Stage and Screen Pictures
The performing aspect makes drama different from other literary genres. Since ancient times, drama was written to be performed in public, rather than being read in private. This element demands studying drama from a performing aspect, in addition to a literary one. Moreover, drama became an individual art, categorized as performing art.
In the course of discussing The Winter's Tale in the Summer Discussion Group, I realized it would be interesting if we pay attention to this aspect of art and expression, in addition to the literary one. Through the years, there have been many fine productions, both stage and screen, based on Shakespeare's plays; in addition, there have been operas, ballets, TV productions, movie posters, movie programs, etc. There exists a wealth of photos from these productions. These would be of great interest to those that appreciate Shakespeare's amazing body of work and enjoy the visual aspect of the performing arts, based upon those great works.
Please include:
Play title
Place/Location
Date
Actor or Actors (in the photo)
Any additional information that might add interest to your photo
And if interested, visit the Summer Discussion Group (The Winter's Tale) here
And with special thanks to Janine!
Stage History of The Winter's Tale
When Simon Forman saw the play at the Globe in May 1611 he was struck by its plot (if not by the statue scene, which he does not mention) and specially by Autolycus ('the rogue that came in all tattered like colt-pixie . . . Beware of trusting feigned beggars or fawning fellows').
Whatever features of the play pleased contemporaries, it was well liked at court, where it was acted in November 1611, during the celebrations of Princess Elizabeth's wedding over Christmas 1612-13, in 1618, possibly 1619, in 1624, and in 1634. After this, however, it fell from favour (though it may have formed the basis of a droll called Dorastus and Fawnid), and when it was revived in the 18th century it generally appeared only in truncated pieces. The play was performed whole, briefly, at both the semi-legal Goodman's Fields theatre and at Covent Garden during the 'Shakespeare boom' of 1741, but thereafter was usually reduced to its pastoral scenes, with more or less of the fifth act grafted hastily on as an ending: Macnamara Morgan produced the first such adaption of the second half of the play as The Sheep-Shearing; or, Florizel and Perdita (1754), which excludes Leontes and has the Old Shepherd turn out to be Antigonus after all. He was successfully emulated by David Garrick, whose popular afterpiece Florizel and Perdita: A Dramatic Pastoral (1756) restores both Leontes and much of the ending: the Sicilian King is washed up in Bohemia after a shipwreck, where he helps Florizel and Perdita, and the statue scene is conducted by an expatriated Paulina. Attempts to reclaim the whole play (by Charles Marsh, whose 1756 adaptation was never acted, and by Thomas Hull in 1771) were less popular, and it was only restored by Kemble in 1802 (who still used Garrick's ending until 1811).
The play was little revived in the 19th century, though Macready, Phelps, and (briefly) "Irving all experimented with the role of Leontes: two conspicuous productions, however, were those of Charles Kean and Mary Anderson. Kean adopted Hanmer's long-discredited emendation of 'Bohemia' to 'Bithynia', setting this most historically eclectic of plays in a consistent ancient Greek period, his 1856 production decorated by meticulous reference to artefacts in the British Museum. This revival was vividly and meticulously burlesqued by the Brough brothers' Perdita; or, The Royal Milkmaid (1856). In 1887 Mary Anderson drew notice by doubling Hermione and Perdita (a distracting trick which would be repeated by Judi Dench in Trevor Nunn's production of 1969). Ellen Terry played Hermione in Beerbohm Tree's condensed three-act production of 1906: Granville-Barker's attempt to restore a full text in 1912 was a critical failure. It would still be hard to name a stage production that had been genuinely popular rather than not discreditable, or that had done equal justice to the play's elements of tragedy and of comedy, though Peter Brook's production of 1951, with John Gielgud as Leontes, impressed many critics, as did Declan Donellan and Nick Ormerod's production for the Russian Maly company in 1999. Notable performers as Leontes have included Patrick Stewart (icily obsessive, 1983),
Jeremy Irons (relapsing into infantile insecurity, 1986), and Antony Sher (pathologically jealous as if for medical reasons, 1998).
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, M. Dobson and S. Wells (Eds.)
The Winter's Tale On the Screen
The earliest film recorded is a ten-minute American silent version (1910), followed by Italian (1913) and German films (1914). A now-scarce film of The Winter's Tale was made in 1960, with Laurence Harvey as Leontes, and there was a BBC TV production two years later, but Jane Howell's production (1980) for the BBC series remains its most satisfactory screen incarnation: for its time it was adventurous in its use of the medium, with stylized settings
and considerable use of close-up asides to camera.
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, M. Dobson and S. Wells (Eds.)
