Washington Post - Recommended
"...The magnitude of forgiveness documented in director Rebecca Taichman's taut, visually arresting and tenderly wrought new production for Shakespeare Theatre Company is itself a kind of magic. And darned if, in inspirational sync with her designers and cast - particularly, Mark Harelik as Leontes - she doesn't compel us all to a wistfully moving consideration of the acts of this foolish king."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Shakespeare Theatre Company returns with the Bard to finish the season in a lovely, polished, and powerful production of The Winter's Tale."
Washington Examiner - Somewhat Recommended
"...It's entirely debatable whether budgeting issues informed Taichman's decision to work with so few actors, but her odd experiment in creative casting renders this a stoic and unfortunately sterile "Tale.""
MetroWeekly - Somewhat Recommended
"...For the Shakespeare-loving stalwart, this may offer an interesting and original attempt to interpret the challenges of a less-than-easy choice. But for everyone else, there's an awful lot of sound and fury for only a few great moments."
WeLoveDC - Recommended
"...I'm tempted to call this "as good as can be expected, given the unevenness of the source material," but that seems lazy and unfair to both Shakespeare and this production. It's also a blank check to do whatever you want for Taichman and her cast, which I'm not sure I think they earn. All told the show is an enjoyable experience with talented actors but some parts feel more like an endurance than an entertainment."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...The most striking bit of double casting allows Harelik to shed the first-act cares of Leontes and, in the second act, take on the role of the loud-mouthed con man Autolycus. Where the first character is anguished and constrained, the second wears an eyepatch and a sequined cape and speaks in an accent that suggests the Wizard of Oz. Other noteworthy performances are Ted van Griethuysen, first as a Sicilian lord chased offstage by a bear, then - seconds later - a rustic Bohemian shepherd, and Nancy Robinette, affecting as Hermione's defender Paulina, reappearing briefly as a rowdy shepherdess at a sheep-shearing festival."
Washington City Paper - Recommended
"...The rich and curious harmonics of The Winter's Tale get careful consideration in Rebecca Taichman's elegant rendition for Shakespeare Theatre Company. It's a tight ensemble piece-just nine actors in this minimalist staging, a severity echoed in the production's clean-lined design-that paces out the courtly measures of Act 1's romantic tragedy with a commendable stateliness, blooms into apt silliness for the play's summery middle passage, then gathers its dignity as the action returns to the scene of a king's crimes for reckoning and redemption."
Washington Life - Somewhat Recommended
"..."The Winter's Tale," now at the Shakespeare Theatre, is one of Shakespeare's more confusing plays. The first act is darkly tragic with echoes of the Bard borrowing from his own works and other classics. After intermission, the play takes an abrupt turn and becomes a pastoral, farcical comedy moving right on to a happy ending. It's enough to give an audience whiplash. It is understandable that "The Winter's Tale" has been difficult for scholars to categorize - some have said it is a tragedy; others a comedy. Generally, it is defined as one of the romantic plays."
Washingtonian - Highly Recommended
"...When you've had more conceptual makeovers and reboots than a Barbie doll (rodeo Shakespeare! Hedge funder Shakespeare!), sometimes a little simplicity can be bracing. The Winter's Tale, currently playing at Shakespeare Theatre in a transcendent co-production with the MacArthur Theatre Center by Rebecca Taichman, is an example of how rich a Shakespeare play can be when it isn't hampered by theme or construct."
ShowBizRadio - Highly Recommended
"...This exquisitely complex production is what theatre should be: Spectacle that also tells a story and conveys a sense of wonder. At the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theatre, Director Rebecca Talchman, with her design team and a uniformly superb cast, has achieved this goal, with moments humorous, chilling and touching, that transcend everyday life."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Washington, DC's Shakespeare Theatre Company is well known for its remarkable talent, fearlessness, and ingenuity in reproducing the Bard of Avon's plays for a contemporary audience. The Winter's Tale constitutes a particular challenge, because its tone shifts between the third and fourth acts between tragedy and comedy (the reason it is sometimes grouped with Shakespeare's "problem plays"). STC's production, now playing at the Lansburgh Theatre, is a no-holds-barred approach to both ends of the emotional spectrum, a moving and occasionally fantastical journey through the trials and tribulations of friendship, love, and magic."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
With its dizzying brew of tragedy, comedy, palace intrigue, pastoral tomfoolery, and cameos by a marauding bear and a living statue, The Winter’s Tale often gives the impression that Shakespeare is taunting earnest theater types from beyond the grave. Though the Bard’s tricky work can often defy adaptation, director Rebecca Taichman meets and exceeds the challenge with her thoughtful, visually stunning adaptation for Shakespeare Theatre Company.
