The Hampstead Players 2011 Summer Production
The Players are delighted at the recognition implied by this invitation and hope to make the most of the opportunity, but they would welcome your support. If you enjoyed last summer's production and would like the opportunity to see it again in a proper theatre, or if you are sorry you missed it, here is your opportunity. Tickets are now on sale from the Questors box office, tel. 020 8567 5184 or online at https://secure.questors.org.uk/qobo2/. The charge for a single performance is £6 (£4 concession). Shakespeare lovers who would like to see more can alternatively purchase weekly passes or a pass for the whole season. Seats are unreserved but there is plenty of good viewing space in this well tiered 350 seat theatre. Details of the whole programme for the period are on Questors website - questors.org.uk.
Questors Theatre is in Mattock Lane, Ealing, W13. Parking may be limited. Best way by public transport is by British Rail from Paddington or Central Line underground to Ealing Broadway station, from where it is about an 8 to 10 minutes' walk.
If you cannot manage the 27th but still want to see us, we will allow free entrance (voluntary donation) to our final dress rehearsal in church at 7.30 pm on Thursday 26th April - but we would rather you came to Questors.
THE
WINTER'S TALE "The
Winter's Tale" is one of Shakespeare's later plays, which have
come to be known as romances. About twenty years before Shakespeare
wrote it, there was a play by George Peele entitled "The Old
Wives' Tale", in which an old woman was asked to tell a merry
winter's tale to pass the time. So a winter's tale can be regarded as
the equivalent of an old wives' tale. Such tales were not unlike fairy
stories, not realistic but involving improbable adventures, unexpected
losses and findings, magic, dreams, romance and usually a happy ending.
In short, a romantic improbability. The
play begins at the court of Leontes, king of Sicilia, and his heavily
pregnant wife, Hermione. Leontes's long time friend Polixenes, king
of Bohemia, has been paying a long visit and now wishes to depart. Leontes
fails to persuade him to stay longer, but Hermione succeeds in doing
so. This triggers a sudden fit of jealousy and a conviction on Leontes's
part that Hermione has committed adultery with Polixenes and that the
child about to be born is not his. He even appears to question the paternity
of his young son Mamillius. He seeks to persuade Camillo, a Sicilian
lord, to poison Polixenes. Camillo, however, believing Hermione innocent,
warns Polixenes of his danger and flees Sicilia with him. This
triggers an even more violent reaction from Leontes, who removes Mamillius
from Hermione's care and, despite the protestations of Antigonus, another
lord, and others, has Hermione imprisoned. There she bears a daughter.
Paulina, wife of Antigonus and friend of Hermione, persuades Hermione
to allow her to take the child to Leontes, hoping that this will soften
him, but the result is the reverse of what she hopes. Leontes first
orders Antigonus to kill the child, relenting only so far as to order
him to take her to a remote and desert place out of his kingdom and
abandon her. At
this point the lords Cleomenes and Dion return from Delphi, where Leontes
has sent them to consult the oracle. Believing that this will prove
his case, Leontes orders the trial of Hermione for treason and adultery.
However the oracle declares Hermione innocent and Leontes a jealous
tyrant. It adds that Leontes shall live without an heir if the babe
which is lost be not found. Thereupon Leontes declares the oracle false,
but its prophecy immediately starts to be fulfilled, with announcements,
first, that Mamillius is dead and, shortly afterwards, that Hermione
is dead. This
convinces Leontes that he was wrong and he bitterly repents. But is
it too late? Antigonus has left the baby on the coast of Bohemia in
a storm. He has had a vision of Hermione telling him to name the child
Perdita, the lost one, and also that he shall see his wife no more.
Sure enough a bear pursues and kills him. (Stage direction - "Exit,
pursued by a bear"). The tragedy seems complete, but, as the first
half ends, a shepherd finds Perdita alive and takes her up. The
action in the second half takes place sixteen years later, when Perdita
has grown up, believed by all to be the shepherd's daughter. We first
see her dressed as queen of the party at the shepherds' summer festival,
a jolly affair, additionally enlivened by the appearance of the rogue
Autolycus. She is accompanied by Prince Florizel, the son of Polixenes,
who is masquerading as a shepherd under the name of Doricles, having
stumbled across Perdita when out with his falcon. The two are in love
but are soon to be frustrated. Polixenes and Camillo, also disguised,
arrive as guests at the party to find out what Florizel is doing. On
seeing the state of affairs, Polixenes, not considering a shepherd's
daughter a fit wife for a prince, removes his disguise, forbids the
marriage, threatens to disinherit Florizel unless he leaves Perdita
for ever and threatens Perdita herself and the Shepherd, her reputed
father, with death, and then departs. After
further adventures and machinations, everyone ends up at the court of
Leontes. This is still in a state of wintry gloom, with the penitent
Leontes having agonised for sixteen years over his cruel folly. Some
of his lords want him to marry again to produce an heir, which idea
is opposed by Paulina. For the better enjoyment of those who do not
know the play, I shall not reveal the outcome of all these matters.
Suffice it to say that the ending is both surprising and emotional and
contains food for thought. Underlying
this play, like other "Winter's Tales" of that time, are the
Christian ideas of falling from grace, sin, repentance and redemption.
Events too evoke both the depredations of time and its potential for
deliverance. These are timeless tales and so we shall not set the play
in any particular era. Shakespeare wrote for a bare stage and so shall
we perform, with no real set and mainly symbolic indications of location.
The power of the play lies in Shakespeare's wonderful language. We have
been fortunate to be accepted into the RSC Open Stages programme for
amateur companies in 2011-2012. One of the benefits of this is that
several of the cast have had the opportunity to attend and learn from
an RSC workshop. The
presentation of this play will be a challenge. Come and see it and tell
us how we do.
Last July the Hampstead Players performed "The Winter's Tale", by William Shakespeare, as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's open stages programme for amateur companies. Over the country as a whole some 263 amateur companies took part, about 60 of them in the London and South East region. The next stage of this programme is a series of Regional Showcase performances, selected from the productions put on in 2011 and 2012. That for London and the South East will take place at Questors Theatre, Ealing, between the 12th and 28th April. The Hampstead Players are amongst those who have been invited to take part by presenting all or part of their production. On Friday, 27th April, at 7.45 pm, the first half of "The Winter's Tale" will be performed by Archway Theatre Horley and the second half, starting from the scene which includes the famous stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear", and continuing to the end, will be performed by the Hampstead Players.
John
Willmer
