Shakespeare’s The winter’s Tale 24th to 26th November

Please join us for a performance of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale as adapted and performed by NUI Galway’s 3rd Year Drama, Theatre and Performance students.

It runs in the Mick Lally Theatre, Druid’s performance space, for three nights: Tuesday, 24 November – Thursday, 26 November. The starting time is 8pm and it will run for a little under an hour. Admission is free and tickets can be had either by emailing thomas.conway@nuigalway.ie – or on the door.

The performance has been in preparation over the semester. Explorations of the play in its original performance context and of the specific performance challenges represented by Shakespeare’s dramatic language have complemented a creative encounter with the play on the students’ own terms. The resulting production is realised by the students, either as directors, designers or performers, with dramaturgical and logistical support from Thomas Conway and Emer McHugh.

Moving between the closed, repressive, courtly world of Sicilia and the open, carefree, pastoral world of Bohemia, and spanning 16 years, The Winter’s Tale looks at families in action. It observes four fathers, two mothers, three sons and a daughter play out dramas all too recognisable – fathers seeking to exercise authority but succeeding only to tear at the very fabric of what keeps their families together. Two story lines unfold among heads of state in a Sicilian court and peasants in the Bohemian countryside, respectively, only to dovetail in the discovery of a newborn child.

The Winter’s Tale is a play in which Shakespeare seemingly asks of his audience, sons and daughters in the world at large, forgiveness for erring fathers. Here Shakespeare lays at our feet some very bitter fruit, as well as wild flowers of the most vibrant, colourful and delicate kind. He gives us scenes of pathos and comedy, and one of the clearest demonstrations of the power of love. It falls to us to decide on whether the mistaken fathers of the world can ever be forgiven.

Those scenes set in Sicilia are directed by RÌ_isÌ_n nic AodhgÌÁin and Mark Leahy. Those set in Bohemia are directed by Naomi Cantwell and Sarah Slevin. The designers are Hannah Kindregan and Elaine Mullarkey. The play has been adapted by the students (Mark Leahy getting a special mention in this regard) in consultation with Thomas Conway and Emer McHugh.

The cast (in order of appearance) is as follows:

Sicilia

GrÌÁinne White as Leontes

Hannah Carleton as Hermione

CaitrÌ_ona O’Donnell as Mamillius and Time

Rose Magner as Antigonus

RÌ_isÌ_n nÌ_ Ch̩ileachair as Polixenes

Aisling Fitzsimons as Camillo

Ella Heatley-Mulhall as Paulina

Bohemia

Kevin Murphy as Autolycus

Jennifer Lynam as Clown

Shifra Tobin as Florizel

Caoimhe Lally as Perdita

Mark Dooley as Shephard

Elaine Mullarkey and Hannah Kindregan make guest appearances at the feast.

We’d very much welcome to see you on one of the evenings of the performance.

For more information please contact: Thomas Conway, Druid Director-in-Residence at NUI Galway thomas.conway@nuigalway.ie