For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking with those LAMBS!

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For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking with those LAMBS!

Posted: 8/2/10 at 9:36pm

I experienced my first SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK yesterday when I saw the final performance of THE WINTER'S TALE that the Public Theater produced.

I thought it was a terrific production with some STRONG talent on that stage! I loved this venue and can understand why this tradition has lasted the decades that it has. I can't wait to return for next year's shows!

However, I must say that whoever's decision it was to put those lambs in the show made an AWFUL decision! The animinatronic component was good in theory, but the execution was laughable. Robotic style movements that were too repetitious. And to only be able to see one head and the top six inches of the other was confusing. Were they trapped in cages?

Sorry to rant, but they were very distracting and bugged the hell out of me! Tell me I'm not alone on this...

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking with those LAMBS!

Posted: 8/2/10 at 9:38pm

It was an efficient solution to a difficult problem.

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 9:41pm

I thought the sight gag was funny at first because the scene right before is just so ridiculous and comical, but then the scene went on and wasn't comical. Heather Lind was giving a lovely performance and the music was beautifully added in. And then there were the damn sheep... moving.

So, to answer your question, no. You were not alone. They were cute and funny for a couple minutes and then they were distracting. (I did not love the production at all, though. Heather Lind was the only bright spot for me.)

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 9:42pm

I thought Heather Lind was quite stronger as Perdita than as Jessica.

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 9:45pm

I thought Heather Lind was quite stronger as Perdita than as Jessica.

Agreed.

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 10:05pm

Precisely. Having them move robotically worked for the first scene, but then they should have turned the animatronics off so that they were frozen for the second scene. I would have assumed the sheep were asleep!

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 10:07pm

Lind was a wonderful Perdita.

This was my first exposure to the play, and there's so much whimsy in it; I thought without the movement the lambs would have been fine. I was surprisingly moved at the end of the play: something about really bad people becoming good really got to me.

"We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in it's flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung, the dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future too." - Tom Stoppard, Shipwreck

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 10:10pm

This was your first SITP...I have experienced many (going back 20+ years) and I can tell you that a silly bit of stagecraft is not unusual for these shows. They're not necessarily meant to be silly, and by silly I mean unnecessary/gimmicky/distracting...you know, like the Winter's Tale sheep. Often, it's water. They've done so many shows with water on stage for no good reason, except hey cool, look we have water on stage. Scenes have been staged where the characters stood in or slogged through the water while speaking their lines.

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 10:19pm

I thought the slogging through water gimmick worked very well in the recent R&J. But I'm also biased because of Lauren Ambrose's (in my opinion) perfect Juliet. I thought the production was stunningly gorgeous, benefitted by a gimmick that could have been ridiculous but instead added a beautiful theatricality.

#10

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/2/10 at 10:28pm

There was nothing more bizarre than the hollowed out boat that was used in Brian Kulik's all-star (Julia Stiles/Jimmy Smits/Kristen Johnston/Christopher Lloyd/Oliver Platt/Zach Braff) TWELFTH NIGHT.

But then there was R&J's West Nile Virus Breeding Pool.

#11

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/3/10 at 9:30am

There was nothing more bizarre than the hollowed out boat that was used in Brian Kulik's all-star (Julia Stiles/Jimmy Smits/Kristen Johnston/Christopher Lloyd/Oliver Platt/Zach Braff) TWELFTH NIGHT.

What about the one tree center-stage that was, for some unexplained reason, painted blue in AS YOU LIKE IT?

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#12

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/3/10 at 9:40am

Touche

#13

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/3/10 at 9:48am

There is no denying that they've made some weird-ass set design choices at SITP

#14

For those who saw THE WINTER'S TALE at SITP.... what were they thinking wit

Posted: 8/3/10 at 9:50am

HAMLET set on an ocean liner.

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