Perdita, or The Winter's Tale

This new adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic by Gyllian Raby, Perdita, or The Winter’s Tale, views through the eyes of a child the chaos set in motion by a father’s paranoid jealousy. King Leontes’ psychosis is terrifying as he plots to kill his best friend Polixenes on suspicion of adultery with Queen Hermione. But when he threatens the lives of the Queen and her newborn daughter, Leontes succeeds only in killing his heir, the ailing prince Maximillius. In the storm of recrimination that follows, Max steps out of Time to save his baby sister, manipulating the Winter’s Tale by imagining reality anew. The Department of Dramatic Arts presents this sad tale with a happy ending. The Winter’s Tale is Maximillius’ attempt to explore the situation that is destroying him, to understand its consequences and to bind his world together.

The text of 1612 has been re-imagined into the Cold War era where Shakespeare’s ‘evil’ Sicilia is an Iron Curtain country kind of power and ‘festive’ Bohemia is a flower-power realm where kids rebel against their parents’ values. It is a tale of lostness and belonging, of trust-betrayed and loyalty. The craving of a child or youth to understand adulthood, and of people stuck in a role or gender to experience its opposite. This is a production where the god and mortal “he” is socially constructed and can be played by actors of any biological sex.

Featuring Avery Delaney as Florizel; Jackson Wagner as Leontes; Jasmine Case as Perdita; Jesse Caines as Court Judge/Jailer/Servant/Shepherd; Joanna Tran as Hermione; Juan-Carlos Figueroa as Polixenes; Lauren Reid as Paulina/Shepherd 2; Leah Rantala as Emilia; Meryl Ochoa as Maximilius/Time; Mike Hammond as Antigonus/Shepherd 3; Molly Lacey as Clio/Dorcas; Rachel Frederick as Dion/Mopsa; Taylor Bogaert as Camillo; Directed by Danielle Wilson and Gyllian Raby, with Gerry Trentham; Set Design by Nigel Scott; Costume Design by Alexandra Lord; Lighting Design by Chris Malkowski; Sound Design and Music by Max Holten-Andersen - Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts Theatre, Brock University, 2020.