The Winter’s Tale • 2022

Director’s Note • Ariana Karp

One of the source materials for Shakespeare’s Pericles was a novel by Laurence Twine entitled The Pattern of Painful Adventures. Its title page was inscribed with the following: “Containing the most excellent, pleasant and variable history of . . . strange accidents. . . . Wherein the uncertainty of this world, and the fickle state of man’s life are lively described.”

In dialogue with one another, The Winter’s Tale and Pericles share some of the best elements of Shakespeare’s late writing: complex and baroque language, intertwined moments of joy and sorrow, redemption, humor, loss, yearning, forgiveness, magic, and beautiful reunion scenes. In both plays, time is an element that teases and deceives us.

The engine of each play, however, is strikingly different. Nearly every sorrow and loss experienced in The Winter’s Tale can be traced back to the fickle and destructive actions of madness, jealousy, and paranoia of one character, King Leontes. In Pericles, by contrast, the misfortunes that Pericles and Marina suffer and the joys they experience are tied to the randomness of fate, to those “strange accidents.”

This year, my priority was to cultivate a process where ensemble members were supported and empowered to grow artistically in responsible ways. They have thrived in the challenge of putting together two very demanding plays in repertory. Working with integrity and joy, they truly found what it is to play, to listen, to adapt, and to trust. It’s difficult for me to fully express my gratitude and appreciation for their commitment.

So why these plays now? We have suffered loss upon loss over the last few years, as a country and as a species. Some losses can be directly attributed to our own systemic problems, and some to “strange accidents.” These losses have changed us. Perhaps we may now find renewed connections by sharing laughter and tears. “The uncertainty of this world and the fickle state of man’s life” lively describes, to my mind, our current reality. We daily are “assailed with Fortune fierce and keen,” and whether we preserve virtue in the end, remains to be seen.