In the year of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Cheek by Jowl is back to the Piccolo Teatro (after having performed Cymbeline in 2007 and Macbeth in 2010), with another of Shakespeare's greatest plays: The Winter's Tale.
Donnellan (founder of the company together with Nick Ormerod) describes this play as follows: "Though written at the same period as The Tempest, Winters' Tale smashes all the rules that The Tempest follows. Unity of time, place and action are hurled aside as we range across Europe, from court to country, from high tragedy to low comedy, across a time span of fourteen years. The Winter's Tale tells of a delusional and paranoid king who tears his family apart. But this is the new Shakespeare, after he completed his great tragedies, and the tough struggle for redemption yields flickers of hope. Initial darkness gives way to joy as Time leads the characters to a shattering conclusion..."
The performance is in English with Italian surtitles.
