Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “The Winter’s Tale” showcases play’s near flawless wit

In “The Winter’s Tale,” Leontes, King of Sicilia, asks a favor of his pregnant wife, Hermione: persuade his childhood Polixenes, King of Bohemia, to extend his visit a few days. As a very pregnant Hermione (Emily Van Fleet) gamely fulfills his request, Leontes (Josh Innerst) casts sidelong looks from across the room.

In the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s handsome production of that late Shakespearean work — directed by Wendy Franz —  those stolen glances might have been Leontes merely checking in on Hermione’s success. Instead, they come to signal the onset of a raging illness: jealousy.

“Too hot. Too hot!” he says in an increasingly unhinged aside as his wife gives Polixenes (Stephen Tyrone Williams) her hand.

The late scholar Harold Bloom described Leontes as “an Othello who is his own Iago.” And Leontes’s unfounded, self-inflicted torment is a thing to behold. He’s a hot mess. As played by Josh Innerst, his descent into suspicion isn’t only tiring, it’s also tyrannical. And that’s a point his wife’s lady-in-waiting, Paulina (Noelia Antweiler) astutely makes soon enough. Nobles, audience members and most certainly the accused know Leontes is wrong. Those onstage attempt to tell him so in ways that might allow him an out.

Instead, he orders trusted courtier Camillo (a wonderfully sympathetic Matthew Schneck) to poison Polixenes. An honorable friend, Camillo nevertheless recognizes that the request is unjust and is forced to escape with Polixenes to Bohemia.

Racked with devouring doubts of his own devising, Leontes orders Hermione to stand trial for her acts of betrayal — sexual and political. While jailed, she delivers her baby, whom Paulina brings to the king in hopes of persuading him to see his face in the wee child’s and get over his unfounded accusations. He doesn’t, and sends the baby off with his nobleman and Paulina’s husband, Antigonus, who leaves the infant on the shores of Bohemia.

Just to be judicious, Leontes has sent emissaries to Apollo’s oracle to suss out the truth. When they return, their news should have made short work of the play, but no. If you think “doubling down” has become one of the more vexing gestures of the zeitgeist, you’ll find its forerunner in Leontes’ behavior. He refutes the oracle.

Only Apollo appears displeased, and news of the young prince’s death arrives posthaste. Devastated, Leontes finally sees the light of atonement, though too late to save Hermione, whose death Paulina relays.

That’s a lot to digest — and that’s only the half of it. Neither comedy nor tragedy, “The Winter’s Tale” weaves the playwright’s gift for tragic flaws and near flawless wit. While the early acts delve in misery, the latter are buoyed by a great deal of mirth.

Having departed Sicilia for Bohemia, the play begins to strike a different tone, thanks in no small measure to the antic arrival of the rogue Autolycus (Jason Dresch), as well as the Shepard (Leslie O’Carroll) and her rather daft if dear son (Brian Bohlender), who find the wee babe Perdita and make a home for her.

The lilt and lift in mood prove a tonic to the exhausting fury and abject contrition of Leontes’ pre-intermission acts. As Autolycus — a cad, a troubadour, a thief — Dresch is hilariously naughty and impressively nimble while breaking the fourth wall with ribald jests, as his energy recalls the late Robin Williams.

In Act 4, Perdita (Edie Roth) has grown into a lovely woman, one oddly refined for a shepherd’s daughter, the play underscores. She is also the beloved of Polixenes’ son, Florizel (Christian Ray Robinson). Because no love goes unchallenged, the fate of their love will be called into question when the Polixenes and Camillo go undercover to discover what the prince has been up to.

Before the show began, a fellow theatergoer shared that he’d been reading about monarchies during the time of Isabella and Ferdinand and was sure this dive into bloodlines and the obsessions of monarchies might help him better grasp Leontes’ suspicions, which from our purview appear not simply unjust but rabid.  (This exchange isn’t unusual; the “Colorado Shakes” regulars can be a heady lot.)

While the stakes were high for monarchs then (and now?), it strikes me that we return to Shakespeare’s works for consistently chastising yet fresh insights into power —political to be sure but also interpersonal.

In this production, loyalty trumps royalty as the compelling theme. Camillo and Paulina appear more vital to the lessons of “The Winter’s Tale” than the young lovers Perdita lovely as they are.

The play has its strange moments, its abrupt changes, but they are Shakespeare’s doing and not the missteps of this production. Paulina’s forbearance of Leontes seems too swift, given her fealty to Hermione. Should we also discount the matter of her husband Antigonus’ final scene in which, famously pursued by a bear, he shouts “This is the chase. I am gone forever!” His and Mamillius’ deaths rest squarely with Leontes.

Near the play’s end, a quick summary by three gentlemen hurries us along to the tale’s conclusion like shepherds might wrangle their flock. And what a conclusion it is: part séance, part ruse and all’s well, as the saying goes.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s other offerings include a straight-up tragedy and a classic comedy: “King Lear” (July 8-Aug. 12) and “Much Ado About Nothing” (through Aug. 13). This summer’s non-Bard offering — Richard Bean’s farcical “One Man, Two Guvnors” runs July 22 through Aug. 13.

IF YOU GO

“A Winter’s Tale”: Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Wendy Franz. Featuring Josh Innerst, Emily Van Fleet, Noelia Antweiler, Matthew Schneck, Leslie O’Carroll, Brian Bohlender, Jacob Dresch, Edie Roth and Christian Ray Robinson. The Colorado Shakespeare Festival at the Roe Green Theatre on the University of Colorado-Boulder, University Theatre Building, Pleasant St. through Aug. 12. For tickets and info: cupresents.org or 303-492-8008.

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