The Winter's Tale

Hosted By

August B. and 2 others

Details

“THE WINTER’S TALE”

MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2025, 6-8 pm

Minneapolis Central Library
(downtown Minneapolis)
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Room N-202.

There is underground parking beneath the library, off 4th St. S., for about $5. Go in to the Library lobby and then in to the book stacks area. Take the elevator or stairs up to the 2nd floor, then go all the way to the left.

This is a discussion about the play, not a reading or showing of it.

SYNOPSIS (from the Folger Library)
• The Winter’s Tale, one of Shakespeare’s very late plays, is filled with improbabilities. Before the conclusion, one character comments that what we are about to see, “Were it but told you, should be hooted at / Like an old tale.”
• It includes murderous passions, man-eating bears, princes and princesses in disguise, death by drowning and by grief, oracles, betrayal, and unexpected joy. Yet the play, which draws much of its power from Greek myth, is grounded in the everyday.
• A “winter’s tale” is one told or read on a long winter’s night. Paradoxically, this winter’s tale is ideally seen rather than read – though the imagination can transform words into vivid action. Its shift from tragedy to comedy, disguises, and startling exits and transformations seem addressed to theater audiences.
• The “tale” of The Winter’s Tale unfolds in scenes set sixteen years apart. In the first part of the play, Leontes, king of Sicilia, plays host to his friend Polixenes, king of Bohemia. Suddenly, Leontes becomes unreasonably jealous of Polixenes and Leontes’s pregnant wife, Hermione. Leontes calls for Polixenes to be killed, but he escapes.
• Hermione, under arrest, gives birth to a daughter; Leontes orders the baby to be taken overseas and abandoned. The death of the couple’s young son, Mamillius, brings Leontes to his senses, too late. Word arrives that Hermione, too, has died. In Bohemia, a shepherd finds and adopts the baby girl, Perdita.
• Sixteen years later, the story resumes. Polixenes’s son, Florizell, loves Perdita. When Polixenes forbids the unequal match, the couple flees to Sicilia, where the tale reaches its conclusion. Perdita’s identity as a princess is revealed, allowing her and Florizell to marry; Leontes and Polixenes reconcile; and Hermione returns in the form of a statue, steps down from its pedestal, and reunites with her family.

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FREE VIDEO PERFORMANCES (YOUTUBE)
• 3-Minute Shakespeare: Animated Shakespeare Summaries
• New Swan Shakespeare Festival (2018)
• Shakespeare’s Globe (2018)
• ActorsNET (2019)

LOCAL LIVE PERFORMANCES
• Shakespeare Youth Theatre
July 18 - Aug. 3, 2025
The Crane Theater, 2303 Kennedy St. NE, Minneapolis, MN
• “Musical Settings for Shakespeare”

KANOPY APP
Download the free app. Then link your library account to it. This will allow you free access to many Shakespeare plays. You can also watch the series “Upstart Crow” for free.

VIDEO ARTICLES
• Tim Nance (NanceNotes and Narwhals): The Winter’s Tale, Acts I-III
• Folger Shakespeare Library Director Michael Witmore shares his thoughts on why “The Winter’s Tale” is his favorite of Shakespeare’s plays.

ARTICLES
• Wikipedia: “The Winter’s Tale”
• About Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine
• A Modern Perspective: The Winter’s Tale by Stephen Orgel
• SparkNotes: Full Book Summary
• SparkNotes: Full Book Analysis
• SparkNotes: William Shakespeare Biography & Background on The Winter’s Tale
• Further Reading: The Winter’s Tale