Sorry, I'm not a theatre critic...

The train to Sheffield from London’s St. Pancras took 2 hours 7 minutes. It was warm in Sheffield, the weather changed from cloudy and overcast to sunny. I had no problem finding the Crucible Theatre. I guess, I've got a GPS in my head, so I find places easily :)

 The Winter’s Tale performance began at precisely 2 pm. I enjoyed this performance, enjoyed the acting from all the cast. I liked the way it ended (scene with a Hermione’s statue). And the scene with a baby was really heart touching. The set, the lighting on the stage and the sound were done nicely. I liked that the audience is so close to the stage. I had a nice seat, not in the front row, but in the center (F 46).

 All actors were great: Daniel Lapaine, Claire Price, Barbara Marten, Christian Dixon – with a good costume and a special lighting effects, his bear looked real, Keir Charles and young Patrick Walshe Mcbride were so funny.

 And Jonathan was perfect, he was great and convincing in his performance. Jon was serious, angry, touching and funny. I liked the sheep shearing fest scene very much, especially when he started to dance :) The truth is Jonathan has won my heart long time ago. And I really enjoyed his performance and the way he looked. So bad, that I didn’t get a chance to meet him. I bumped into Daniel Lapaine, when he was walking out the stage door, I saw Patrick Walshe talking with some women, Gareth Williams (I think it was him) smoking near the stage door. So I saw other men, not the one I wanted to see.

 I bought The Winter’s Tale programme at the Crucible. This programme consists of cast and production team list, cast and creative team biographies, an interview with Rafaella Marcus (Assistant Director), an article “Seeing and Believing” by Raphael Lyne (reader in English Renaissance literature at the University of Cambridge), an interview “In conversation with actors Jonathan Firth, Daniel Lapaine and Claire Price” by Mark Fisher and some rehearsal pictures.

 In this interview Jonathan answered 3 questions: 1) What makes a good director?
 Jonathan: I worked with Paul a very long time ago. He gave me my first theatre job, a play called Bad Company, which was very enjoyable. There’s something about Paul that gets everybody to believe in the material and to believe in themselves very strongly. There’s also something about this play – the feeling that it is a tale, a piece of storytelling – that means, despite a lot of it exploring dark territory,it is a 100 per cent positive atmosphere.

2) Jonathan, how does it feel to be the innocent Polixenes, wrongly accused by Leontes of adultery? Jonathan: It’s a huge shock for him. There’s no suggestion anywhere in the script that Leontes and Polixenes have any siblings, and there’s a lot of suggestion that they grew up together. They’re not just best friends; they are the nearest thing they have to family. So the story has that family-schism factor as well as a friendship-schism. Friends move on, but with family, those wounds remain. There’s always a hole there that needs filling.

3) The other big theme in the play is reconciliation.
 Jonathan: What’s interesting about this play, unlike Shakespearean tragedy, is that there is healing at the end of it. Truth and reconciliation commissions do require an immense act of faith from all concerned and an immense lack of cynicism and Paul’s interpretation celebrates that.

This review was published two days ago (October the 19th):
The Winter's Tale got 4 stars from the Stage review

http://www.stagereviews.co.uk/other.html

and it mentioned Jon's performance: " .....Jonathan Firth, as the undeserving target of his wrath, is equally impressive, delivering the lines with clarity and sense".