29th year of free summer Shakespeare in Wilmington is a win with 'The Winter's Tale'
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Cape Fear Shakespeare the Green celebrated the start of its 29th season at Wilmington's Greenfield Lake Amphitheater last weekend with William Shakespeare's play "The Winter's Tale."
The company continues to offer its performances, which continue through June 23, free of charge.
Though "The Winter's Tale" doesn't have the marquee status of "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet" or "Macbeth," it is regarded as one of Shakespeare's finest accomplishments – a play that defies genre and the rules binding time and place to the action. Its originality, too, lies in its main character's psychology.
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For these reasons and more, "The Winter's Tale" is in the same league as "King Lear" and "Hamlet" as an acting challenge. Here's what you need to start an acquaintance with the show:
King Leontes of Sicily becomes insanely jealous, accusing his pregnant wife, Hermione, of adultery with his childhood friend, Bohemia's King Polixenes. Hermione appears to die on this accusation, but not before giving birth to a daughter, Perdita, who is ordered abandoned by her father.
Perdita is found and raised by an old shepherd and his family. Sixteen years pass, and Perdita meets and falls in love with Prince Florizel, the son of Polixenes, and is assisted in returning to Sicily, where she is reunited with her family and the blessing of a "miracle."
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The Cape Fear Shakespeare actors, a mix of amateurs and aspiring professionals, range in age from early teens to 40-something, and their experience, likewise, varies. Still, they have every cause to feel good about the overall effect of Sunday evening's performance.
The heavy lifting in the role of Leontes goes to Jason Corder, a past acting-award winner at the StarNews Wilmington Theater Awards. His performance throughout the night's first half gives a convincing glimpse into a psyche at war with itself – as if Othello and Iago inhabited the same brain. Leontes coming apart in accusing Hermione and Polixenes swerves from a sad, frat-boy fit to terrifying rage, and it telegraphs clearly in Corder's reading.
Aisling Stegmuller is regal and strong Queen Hermione, facing her husband's temporary insanity with courage and dignity. Stegmuller's queen is nobly assisted in staying alive by Paulina, played winningly by Amber Heck.
Fourteen actors play 27 roles in Cape Fear Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," which is frequently done by other theater companies but feels extra in every way with this committed troupe. Corder, for example, effectively swings from the tragic role of Leontes to the comedic one of Autolycus in the second half of the play.
A tip of the hat goes to the rest of the cast, including Brandi Simmons, Jesslyn Wilson, Jacob Normandle, Lynette O'Callaghan, E.C. Cobb-Curtis, Katelyn Rivenbark, Sierra and Van Fiskin, and Itzelle and Zaida Heinberg.
Cherri McKay, the company's managing producer, directs an abridged version of the play, cutting nearly one hour from its running time. The entire performance, with one intermission, lasts for about one hour and 45 minutes.
And yet for all the time saving, the dialog is often an unintended casualty, at times rushed into mumbled nonsense. When giving voice to ideas expressed in an unfamiliar syntax, the fastest way is the slow way – to paraphrase Juan Manuel Fangio. Just a thought.
Want to go?
What: Cape Fear Shakespeare on the Green presents "The Winter's Tale"
When: 8 p.m. June 10-12, 17-19 and June 22-23, rain or shine.
Where: Hugh Morton/Greenfield Lake Amphitheater, 1941 Amphitheater Drive, Wilmington
Tickets: Admission is free, with donations accepted. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Concessions available, picnics allowed.
Details: 910-399-2878 or Facebook.com/capefearshakespeareotg
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 29th year of free summer Shakespeare in Wilmington NC is Winter's Tale
