The Winter's Tale Reviews
Chicago Reader- Somewhat Recommended
"...The shifts in time, tone, place, and genre prove too much for the cast of this Promethean Theatre Ensemble staging; they overplay both the tragedy and the comedy. One notable exception is Cameron Feagin's performance as the mistreated queen. Her sorrowful, quietly baffled declaration of innocence is far more moving and convincing than all the grimacing and declaiming we get elsewhere."
Stage and Cinema- Recommended
"...For the most part Promethean’s 14 players stay on top of the play’s leaps of logic as much as faith. The happy ending, which opens up new questions as it solves old ones, comes from the audience’s hopes, not the story’s dynamics. Hope and change can be treacherous, we know, but we can’t help wanting one to fix the other."
ChicagoCritic- Somewhat Recommended
"...It isn’t to say that this is a bad performance by any means, it’s just not a great one, and The Winter’s Tale is a particularly difficult play to pull off. This production is noteworthy for Cameron Feagin’s performance as Hermione, but, other than that, The Athenaeum Theatre failed to convince me that this Winter Tale is worth reconsidering."
Chicago Stage and Screen- Somewhat Recommended
"...The Winter’s Tale has always had an interesting place within the Shakespeare canon. One of his final works, it has long been called a “problem play” because of the difficulties it presents. It is the Picasso painting of Shakespeare plays. Much like the great master’s works that are slowly revealing to us the images underneath, “The Winter’s Tale” is a pastoral comedy layered on top of a Greek tragedy, all bound together within the same text."
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
"...Though not always so urgent and detailed as a really Stirling production would require, the Promethean Winter’s Tale is an honest telling. It keeps its through line, it’s great question, high flying throughout and presents the famed ending, so difficult to describe and so lovely to behold, with everything attending. All told, the show is a sound ship and if you “Bear” with it, you’ll find that once it gets its wind, it sails beautifully."