Northern Broadsides will return to Liverpool this November with The Winter’s Tale, one of Shakespeare’s most inventive and enigmatic plays, with elements of tragedy, comedy, romance and psychological drama, of reconciliation, love and forgiveness. The show will be at the Playhouse from 17th to 21st November.
Northern Broadsides are renowned for their refreshing, unpretentious approach to classic drama, making virtues of clarity and simplicity. The large ensemble cast of multi-talented actor-musicians perform in their own charismatic northern voices, allowing the audience to hear the words afresh. They last visited Liverpool in May, when they performed King Lear at the Playhouse.
The story begins at the end of 1999, as revellers in the court of Sicilia celebrate the dawn of a new millennium. However, their free-spirited optimism is short-lived, as King Leontes becomes mad with jealousy, suspecting his pregnant wife of an infidelity with his close aide Polixenes.
The second part of the play takes place sixteen years on, in the contrastingly light and joyous court of Bohemia, where an unlikely romance between lovelorn Prince Florizel and shepherdess Perdita unfolds against a riotous backdrop of music, dance and bawdiness.
What follows is a beautiful and beguiling love story where the cold hand of winter gives way to the brightness and vibrancy of spring.
Director Conrad Nelson, who also plays Leontes, has become a firm favourite with Northern Broadsides fans, with his distinctive, fast-paced and highly theatrical directorial style, as demonstrated in She Stoops to Conquer, The Grand Gesture, A Government Inspector and The Canterbury Tales – all of which played to packed audiences at the Playhouse in recent years.
Other familiar faces amongst the cast of actor-musicians will include Andy Cryer (King Lear), Mike Hugo (The Tempest), and Liverpool-based Ruth Alexander-Rubin, a veteran of three Everyman pantos and the Liverpool Shakespeare Festival.
Tickets for the show are priced at £12 – £25* Tickets are available from the Box office, by telephone on 0151 7094776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com.