One of the enduring things about William Shakespear’s plays is that, having been around for around 400 years, people like to tinker with them, and no one does it more effectively than Irwin Appel and his UCSB Dept. of Theater & Dance Naked Shakes project. This year he and the talented student actors and crew tackled one of the bard’s “problematic” works, “The Winter’s tale.” It’s really two plays in one: the first three acts are a harrowing drama about jealousy and, in effect, murder, set in the court of Leontes, the raging monarch of Sicily; after intermission it is a rom-com set in an idyllic and somewhat wacky Bohemia, with a happy ending tying the two stories together. I had seen a few productions of this play before and never liked it much, but Naked Shakes made me a convert to it’s charms and their stripped down production ethos (minimal scenery and props, and for this one, costumes chosen by the actors from their own contemporary clothing) breathed new life into this, the most intermittently popular of Will’s plays. It moved along much faster than I remembered and I was much moved by the time of the redemptive ending. There is some added frisson due to the natural connection to the “Me Too” movement and the whole issue of sexual inequality, which no doubt enhanced the young actors’ passionate investment in their roles, and aided by Appel’s inspired direction, made for a compact (in spite of being 2.5 hrs long) and deeply satisfying evening of theatrical magic to make you angry, laugh and cry, running the whole gamut of Shakespeare in one play. Bravo!
