Phoenix Theatre Presents World Premiere of Katrina Hall's Retelling Of Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE

The Phoenix Theatre continues its online season with a World Premiere re-telling of a classic William Shakespeare work. Phoenix Theatre's Virtual Artist in Residence Katrina Hall is directing and adapting this new look at The Winter's Tale. She set out to put the women of the story more in the forefront.

This online performance runs three performances only February 19-21. The company is performing this classic work live on Zoom and it will be broadcast on their YouTube Channel. Audiences can connect to all performances at the company's website www.thephoenixtheatrepa.com. Tickets are pay what you can with a suggested donation of $20 a household.

"For those familiar with the play, they'll hopefully notice a piece even more female focused than Shakespeare's original," said Hall. "Also, they will notice one arguably darker around the edges."

In Hall's adaptation of William Shakespeare's, The Winter's Tale, abandonment, loss, jealousy, and redemption all play out in their Time, across the lands of Sicilia and Bohemia. The jealous King Leontes falsely accuses his wife Hermione of infidelity with his best friend, and she dies. Leontes exiles his newborn daughter Perdita. With time at the center of this story, audiences pick back up in the story 16 years later, where audiences meet Leontes' now grown daughter, who was raised by shepherds in her exile and falls in love with the son of Leontes' former best friend. In Hall's adaptation, Bohemia becomes a carnival.

"It was the play's overall oddness that initially drew me in," said Hall about adapting this work. "The way some of the turns were just so quick and outsized in ways you don't typically see even from Shakespeare. It also inherently struck me as a woman's play, which I am generally oriented toward. The challenge of centering that aspect of it really appealed to me."

She adds, "Among other things, The Winter's Tale is about jealousy. The way it is insidious in that it makes you believe you have clarity of vision, while the exact opposite is true. The longer it is maintained, the more progressively opaque your sight becomes. Here, in the King of Sicily's case, to tragically deadly results. For me, it is also about not only forgiveness, but what, if any, are its limits.

The cast includes Ryan Albinus (Roustabout/Mamillius), Joyia D. Bradley (Lachesis/Paulina), Tyshawn Gooden (Florizel), De'Ja McKnabb (Clotho/Perdita), Ernest Emmanuel Peeples (Leontes), Isabel Robin (Hermione), Stacy Skinner (Antigonus/Head Carnie), Marc Verzatt (Camillo/Autolycus), Matthew Windham (Polixenes), and Mario (Mars) Wolfe (Atropos). 

The Winter's Tale is retold, adapted and directed by Phoenix Theatre Virtual Artist in Residence, Katrina Hall. Virtual Background and Video Designer is Company Member Lydia Joy Carswell. Company Founder and Artistic Director Seth Reich is the Sound Designer. Costume Designer is Tay Sconiers. Technical Director is Company Member Marcus Barainyak. Associate Artistic Director Andrés Gallardo Bustillo is the Stage Manager.

For more information visit www.thephoenixtheatrepa.com.

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