The Winter’s Tale **** TNT
Part of the Transatlantic Bridge Project, Sam Mendes’ production of Shakespeare’s tale of all-consuming jealousy is more comic celebration than tragedy once the glimmering candles of Sicilia give way to the rustic pleasures of Bohemia, with its fun-loving comedy characters.
Ethan Hawke’s guitar-strumming, light-fingered Autolycus and Tobias Segal’s Young Shepherd bat brilliantly for the US contingent, while Brits Richard Easton (as the Old Shepherd), Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack are equally effective.
The famous “exit pursued by bear” stage direction raises a laugh (even though it proves a lanky specimen), and sausage-pink balloons are put to saucy use when a bucolic hoedown gets under way.
» Old Vic, The Cut, SE1 8NB (0870 060 6628). In repertoire with The Cherry Orchard until Aug 15. £9-£45
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