Stretching the boundaries of tragedy and comedy

The Winter's Tale

From left, Polixenes (sophomore Kut Akdogan), Hermione (junior Sara-Ashley Bischoff), Leontes (sophomore Adam Zivkovic) and Mamillius (Asher Muldoon) enjoy a lighter moment, as the Older Leontes (Paul Muldoon) looks on from above in the Program in Theater and Dance's production of William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale." Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 15-17, in the McCarter Theatre Center's Berlind Theatre.


Above left: The Older Leontes remembers his lost child.
 

An Old Shepherdess and her son

An Old Shepherdess (sophomore Heather May), right, and her son (freshman Irfan Kherani) comically recount some recent disasters. At left: Antigonus (senior Will Ellerbe), abandoning Leontes' child on a seacoast, recounts a dream vision of the king's wife, Hermione (in doorway).  

Wedding dance

Leontes and Hermione relive a loving moment from their shared past.   At left: Senior Georgina Sherrington, left, who is serving as assistant director, and director Tracy Bersley compare notes during a rehearsal.   Photos: John Jameson 

The Older Leontes

Princeton's Program in Theater and Dance will present "The Winter's Tale," William Shakespeare's story about jealousy and redemption, at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 15-17, in the McCarter Theatre Center's Berlind Theatre.

Shakespeare, in the final stage of his theatrical career, stretches the boundaries of both tragedy and comedy to create a play unique in its form and lacerating in its exploration of the havoc that the sprites and goblins of a jealous imagination can wreak.

Antigonus

Directed by faculty member Tracy Bersley, a New York-based director and choreographer, this re-imagining of Shakespeare's play takes place in the memory of its leading character -- an attic library of regret and recrimination designed by Jeffrey Van Velsor, a longtime collaborator of Bersley's.

"The Winter's Tale" features an undergraduate cast including Kut Akdogan, Paul Bangiola, Sara-Ashley Bischoff, Will Ellerbe, Becca Foresman, Jess Harrop, Irfan Kherani, Heather May, Georgina Sherrington, Mary Cait Walthall, Sam Zetumer and Adam Zivkovic.

The cast also includes Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, chair of University's Lewis Center for the Arts, and his son, Asher Muldoon. The Program in Theater and Dance is a division of the center.

Tickets range from $10 to $15, and may be ordered by calling the McCarter Theatre Center at (609) 258-2787. "The Winter’s Tale" has been made possible by a grant from the David A. Gardner '69 Magic Project, with additional funding from the Kirby Family Foundation. 

The Winter's Tale