The Winter’s Tale The Black Box, Galway Arts Festival

The Winter’s Tale is probably the most tedious of William Shakespeare’s plays.

The tragedy of its first half gives way to a carnival atmosphere that prevails for much of the second: the two parts are so different in tone and intention that it hardly stretches credulity to suggest that they were written by different hands.

The UK company Propeller have proved fearless interpreters of Shakespeare’s work, and must have relished tackling The Winter’s Tale, if only to see how they could temper its more leaden passages. They do so by sending forth an all-male cast, camping up certain elements of the play, and being pretty liberal in their overall interpretation of the text.