THE WINTER’S TALE
At Theodore Roosevelt County Park (on Route 27, three miles east of Montauk) through Augl. 15; then at Agawan Park in Southampton through Aug. 25. Call (631) 267-0105.
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IT was an overcast, threatening summer evening in Montauk. But at a quarter to eight, the skies cleared and nature turned just in time into a perfect backdrop for the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival production of “The Winter’s Tale.”
This is the seventh summer for the festival, which offers a splendid example of that ever-growing American institution – outdoor, free Shakespeare.
An odd, challenging choice, “The Winter’s Tale” is not a witty, sexy comic romance.
The first half is about mad jealousy, like “Othello”; the second, set 16 years later, covers youth and romance and reconciliation.
The miracle is that, under the clear, lyrical direction of Michael Landman, this production tells this strange story so well.
As the play began, Landman staged a dumb show in which the actors briefly acted out what was to come: Leontes, king of Sicily, becomes convinced – unjustly – that his wife, Hermione, is having an affair with his pal Polixenes, king of Bohemia.
He puts his wife on trial; one of his aides flees with the king’s young daughter to Bohemia.
Richard B. Watson makes the insane jealousy of Leontes vividly credible, while Kameron Steele is a convincing Polixenes, puzzled by his friend’s sudden suspiciousness.
Sixteen years later, the girl from Sicily has grown into the beautiful Perdita (Laura Piquado), whom the smitten Bohemian prince Florizel (Nathan Blew) courts at a rustic feast. But his father – our old friend Polixenes – forbids the marriage.
The young lovers flee to Sicily, where the wise old Paulina (an excellent, sympathetic Lydia Franco-Hodges) solves everything.
It’s a wonderful, magical play that the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival does with grace and charm.