June 5, 2025 – August 2, 2025

American Shakespeare Center's The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare for the Summer 2025 Repertory Season.

“Ha, ha, what a fool Honesty is!”

Act 4, scene 4

 

Journey into a tale of jealousy, loss, and ultimate redemption with Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. King Leontes’ suspicions lead to tragedy, but a miraculous twist opens the path to forgiveness.

This play explores the power of time, love, and the human capacity for forgiveness. With spellbinding storytelling and a breathtaking stage, The Winter’s Tale is a poignant exploration of redemption, resilience, and the magic of second chances.

Enter the World of The Winter's Tale...

Audiences React to The Winter's Tale
Stuff That Happens...
  • Leontes, the King of Sicilia, has been hosting his boyhood friend, Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, for nine months.
  • When Leontes asks his wife, Hermione, to persuade Polixenes to stay longer, she succeeds.
  • Suddenly, Leontes suspects that his wife has been having an affair with Polixenes and that her unborn child is Polixenes’s.
  • Leontes orders the arrest of Hermione and separates her from their young son, Mamillius.
  • He orders his councilor, Camillo, to murder Polixenes. Instead, Camillo helps him escape to Bohemia.
  • In prison, Hermione gives birth to a daughter. Her attendant, Paulina, brings the infant to Leontes and pleads with him to reconsider.
  • Leontes sends the infant away to die and demands the Oracle’s judgment on Hermione’s guilt.
  • At Hermione’s trial, the oracle proclaims her innocence. Leontes refuses to believe it.
    News arrives: his young son Mamillius has died. Hermione collapses and is pronounced dead.
  • Meanwhile, as a storm is brewing, Antigonus arrives on a Bohemian shore and abandons the infant girl. Antigonus exits, pursued by a bear.
  • A Shepherd and a Clown find the girl. Her name is Perdita.
  • Sixteen years later, Time appears to bridge the gap. Perdita and Prince Florizel (Polixenes’s son) are in love.
  • At the festival, Florizel (in disguise) courts Perdita. Polixenes (also in disguise) forbids it.
  • Camillo, Leontes’s councilor, helped Polixenes flee to Bohemia sixteen years ago and now helps the young lovers flee back to Sicilia.
  • Autolycus, a roguish peddler and pickpocket, stirs up mischief along the way.
  • Unions, reunions, and wonders ensue…
Director Notes

The Winter’s Tale can almost be considered two plays: a compelling story of perceived betrayal that is basically complete, yet leaves you wondering; followed by its sequel, which provides us with the closure that we often seek, and have become accustomed to in storytelling.

The truth is, stories never end, only our involvement, participation, or knowledge of what happens next, creating an ongoing ‘Butterfly Effect’, as each decision, action, and response impacts the direction of the tale. We are the author of our own narrative, yet we intersect with others in an infinite web of humanity.

This play explores the consequences of our actions, as well as themes of loyalty vs morality, betrayal, redemption, and reconciliation. The decisions we make do not happen in a vacuum; they are a product of our experiences up until that point.

American Shakespeare Center's The Winters Tale Director Raphael Emmanuel at the Table Read 2025. Photo by Madison Patterson.

(Director Raphael Emmanuel at The Winter’s Tale Table Read 2025. Photo by Madison Patterson.)

It is easy to condemn Leontes’ jealous measures (rightfully so); yet, in his mind, for reasons known only to him, he is justified. We see a rogue in Autolycus; yet thievery is most often performed out of necessity. Camillo makes choices based on honor, no matter the potential result. Sometimes we are quick to judge and label individuals, without considering what we don’t know.

We have reimagined our setting using inspiration from Black Bohemia, another name for the Harlem Renaissance, and a time definitively impacted by an explosion of Black culture, WWII, Jazz music, Prohibition, and more. This does not change the story on the page, but seeks to draw comparisons to the already existing themes in the play. Enjoy.

Raphael Emmanuel

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