Class Act Theatre presents the timeless classic romance of jealousy and forgiveness reimagined in a modern setting and performed by some of Melbourne’s most talented actors at Northcote Town Hall 1-11 June.

Written circa 1611, only five years before Shakespeare died, The Winter’s Tale belongs to a set of later Shakespearean plays known today as romances. These dramas are full of spectacle and set pieces and occasionally partake of supernatural beings to drive their plots. 

The Winter’s Tale is both tragic and comic, but ultimately it transcends these genres by embracing fairytale themes of separation, reconciliation, and love.

The play focuses on the jealous king, Leontes, who accuses his pregnant wife Hermione of adultery with his best friend and fellow king Polixenes.  Leontes refuses to listen to her pleas of innocence, takes away her eight year old son Mamillius, and sends away her newly born baby daughter to die.  At her trial he ignores the divine intervention of Apollo’s oracle and continues with the case. Immediately his young son Mamillius dies and Hermione collapses, also apparently dead.  Leontes is wracked with remorse.  After a gap of sixteen years his now grown daughter Perdita, who in fact escaped death, arrives with her lover Florizel, son of Polixenes.  Florizel’s father has pursued them and all are reconciled.  In a final moving coda they go to visit a statue of the dead Hermione, and the true magic of the fairy tale brings about a beautiful happy ending.