The Winter’s Tale is undergoing a revival on the stages of London at the moment. The Kenneth Branagh Company’s award-winning production has recently completed its run at the Garrick Theatre; The Sam Wanamaker production, directed by Michael Longhurst, is currently entering its fourteenth week; and Christopher Wheeldon’s 2014 ballet adaptation for the Royal Opera House is returning in April 2016 for a 10-week run. It seemed particularly fitting, therefore, that Dr Sarah Dustagheer chose this play to illustrate the traditions and practices of the early modern indoor theatre. 

The talk began with some key facts about the play and its place within the early modern canon. Although records suggest that it was performed at both the globe and the indoor theatres, the main focus of the lecture was its staging at the Blackfriars, a converted theatre within the refectory hall of a dissolved medieval Dominican monastery. Unlike the Globe, this playing space was lit by candles and seated a mere 900 spectators, compared to the 3000-strong sitting/standing audience of the Globe. In addition to its long Catholic history, moreover, the Blackfriars was a crucial site for critical political events within the 16^th century, and therefore would have resonated on multiple levels with early modern audiences.

Taking the historical import of this remarkable venue as the main crux of her thesis, Dr. Dustagheer argued that The Winter’s Tale was written specifically with the Blackfriars theatre in mind. Central to her argument was the fact that the Blackfriars refectory hall was the location of Catherine of Aragon’s trial in 1529. The venue was thus, for early modern audiences, ‘a spatial manifestation of culturally-determined positions for women’ and a natural environment for ‘exploring the female condition.’ For an original 17^th-century Blackfriars audience, therefore, the trial of Hermione — a scene in which Hermione conducts herself with remarkable dignity and poise — would have been imbued with deep ideological and historical significance.  

As further evidence for her thesis, Dr. Dustagheer cited the numerous Catholic references in the play. Leontes’ remorse in particular is expressed in Catholic, penitential language. Upon hearing of the ‘deaths’ of his wife and son, he exclaims ‘[o]nce a day I’ll visit / The chapel where they lie’ (3.3.235-6), and in act 5, Cleomenes notes that Leontes has ‘performed / A saint-like sorrow’ (5.1.1-2). The spectacle of Perdita kneeling at Hermione’s statue, moreover, would have had overtones of Popish idolatry which would have not been entirely undermined by the revelation at the end of the play.

This was an admirably well-researched and engaging lecture that catered for its diverse audience of Shakespeare scholars and general public alike. What was perhaps most remarkable was that Dr. Dustagheer managed to convey so much information without giving away the final twist. I am sure that those in the audience who admitted to never having seen The Winter’s Tale will have been inspired to rush out and buy tickets, if only to find out what happens at the end.

 

Links:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shakespeare-400-the-winters-tale-shakespeare-and-the-traditions-of-indoor-performance-tickets-19781734701

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/sam-wanamaker-playhouse/the-winters-tale-2016

https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/about-the-play

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-winters-tale-by-christopher-wheeldon