"Well staged and superbly acted" by Deborah Klayman for remotegoat on 13/05/09

It is not often that a new company is fortunate enough to get the full use of a venue in central London, but theatredelicatessen have been just that lucky. Resident in this derelict office space on Regent Street, the company has utilised their surroundings to the fullest, and produced a powerful, dark version of one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays. They have made no apologies for the space, rather they have drawn on it's bleakness to set the opening of 'The Winter's Tale'; putting the gossipy, paranoid nature of the first act into a fitting environment. As the play progresses, so too does the space, with the actors herding the audience to different vantage points for each of the three parts of the plot. The director chose to set the play in a modern context, with the Sicilians as London gangsters and Bohemians as more free-spirited country-folk. On the whole this worked very well in the opening, but there were certain things that consistently jarred, such as the multiple references to Greek deities and oracles. The space the actors were given to work in at the beginning was also painfully shallow, leaving little room for movement during exchanges, and resulting in the audience watching the back of one or other of the protagonists for whole scenes. I found the second half move into Bohemia difficult, a sentiment that was somewhat acknowledged in the director's notes ('Creating the world of Bohemia has been much harder'). The play itself has this awkward shift from the naturalistic to the supernatural, and the introduction of characters so late on had the effect of a second play beginning, and one that does not entirely mesh with the former. The dancing at the opening of the second half was poorly choreographed and the scene overly long, however there were some nice moments and served to progress the plot and introduce the lovers and other necessary characters. One thing's for sure though - this play is long. Not simply because of it's 3 ½ hour running time, not only because of the bum-numbing seats, but primarily because of the pace of the production. As is customary, the first half is longer (and unlike many plays it is difficult to move the interval), and was for the most part engaging and very well acted. That said it dragged in parts, mostly at the top and tail of scenes and in the changes between them. What made it all worthwhile, however, were some of the excellent performances given by the lead actors. Despite a shaky opening scene, Laura Martin-Simpson gave a strong, dignified performance as Hermione. Her speech was so natural and conversational as to give the impression it was modern text, making it both believable and accessible in equal measure. Henry Maynard gave a commanding performance as Polixenes, with a wonderfully resonant voice; and Graham O'Mara's Camillo was both scrupulous and sympathetic. Mark Aiden also gave a noteworthy performance as the shepherd's son (Clown). Florencia Cordeu's Paulina was the only one that perplexed me. Her accent wandered, and at times the text was too fiercely punctuated, but on the other hand she had moments that were truly superb: so heartfelt, and with such profound emotion that I was genuinely moved. The tour de force performance, however, came from Tom Daplyn - not only in his main role as Leontes, but also in his secondary one as the Old Shepherd. Leontes building suspicion and all-consuming jealously would have put even Othello to shame, and Daplyn played it with an integrity and intensity that was breathtaking. The Old Shepherd by contrast showed a lighter side, but still with the same dedication and believability. I felt the company, and set designer Sophie Mosberger in particular, did a superb job of converting the space and keeping the audience on their toes. The 'reveal' at the end of the first half surprised us all, and opened up a whole new range of possibilities for the second half. This did not feel like a fringe production, and was clearly the work of a very dedicated group - I look forward to more theatredelicatessen productions in the future.