Adapted by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Carl Hunter, The Winter’s Tale is a modern retelling of the story of King Leontes falsely accusing his wife Hermione of infidelity with his best friend. Except, in this adaptation, there’s a twist: the roles are reversed, and it is Dad who is turned to stone and left on a beach of forgotten souls after his wife and daughter become obsessed with technology.
Commissioned as part of The British Council’s reworking of Shakespeare’s classic plays into short films, The Winter’s Tale is the final edition to a series that celebrates the playwright’s influence on culture and the arts for the 400th anniversary of his death. With a four-minute run time and starring Joseph Mawle as Leontes (Game of Thrones, Ripper Street), the film focuses on the passing of time around Dad as he stands, forgotten on the beach, frozen to the world and people around him who visit, day after day, with flowers.
Opening on Crosby Beach in Liverpool, the film’s first sequence is of simple, picturesque scenes of the ocean, the sand and the surrounding nature – an idealistic summer vacation. That is until the camera focuses on the numerous sculptures standing in the sand, influenced by Antony Gormley’s Another Place. In an attempt to re-create the sea coast of Bohemia in Shakespeare’s play, the film combines the naturalistic scenery of the beach with a fantastical, alienesque vibe, meshing the natural with the unnatural.
The sculptures work to create an extraordinary, unnerving atmosphere, complemented by the score which, dominating the film due to minimalistic dialogue, adds to the sci-fi setting. Perfectly bringing to life the spirit of Shakespeare’s settings, Crosby Beach is filmed as fantastical but simultaneously realistic.
What minimal dialogue there is from Dad and his daughter also stands to match the deep, lyrical and resonating tone of Shakespeare’s Renaissance language, creating a message of what the world could look like if we, like the mother and daughter, become preoccupied with technology. This is also emphasised in the sound editing which, in one moment, uses a ticking sound to symbolise the passing of time. Pumpkins are hung in the window, Christmas decorations surround the house; seasons pass, but the sculptures remain the same. The film uses minimal set and soundscaping to highlight how quickly and suddenly time passes, whilst illustrating how, for some (for Dad) we are at a standstill, observing everything around us from a distance.
What I particularly liked about the film was the scene in which we see the families visiting the sculptures, resonating with how we visit the gravesites of passed relatives. Symbolising how we miss those we’ve lost more when they are gone than when they are alive, the final line of the film, “be stone no more”, highlights humanity’s desire to have relatives back, to take back our mistakes, and to appreciate those around us. This is further emphasised in the final frame of the daughter holding her father’s hand.
Overall, Shakespeare Live’s The Winter’s Tale is a modern, simple but fantastical – and ultimately effortless – rendition of one of Shakespeare’s finest plays. This adaptation cuts out the drama of the original story to focus on the regret a family faces once all is said and done.
Free to stream, the short film can be watched here.
Words by Lucy Lillystone.
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