The Winter's Tale: Shakespeare's wondrous Tragicomedy

A daringly experimental play from Shakespeare's distinctive final period, The Winter's Tale thought-provokingly explores the very limits of what drama can do. Its absorbing portrayal of tragic self-sabotage in Acts One to Three invites comparison with King Lear— but that is (literally) only half the story. For in Acts Four and Five, like Shakespeare's other great late work The Tempest, it moves decisively beyond tragedy, boldly invoking a kind of theatrical magic to conjure forgiveness, redemption, and the image of a world wondrously renewed. Yet this extraordinary play is relatively seldom performed or studied; let's remedy that together!