The Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's later plays. It falls into two distinct parts which has made it difficult to classify, having been variously considered a comedy, a tragicomedy or a romance. In the first part, Leontes is thrown into a jealous rage by his suspicions of his wife Hermione and his best friend. He imprisons her and orders that her new born daughter be left to perish. The second half is a pastoral comedy about the 'lost' daughter Perdita who has been rescued by shepherds and is now in love with a young prince. The play ends with former lovers and friends reunited after the apparently miraculous resurrection of Hermione. John Pitcher's lively introduction and commentary explores the extraordinary merging of theatrical forms in the play and its success in performance. As the recent Sam Mendes production at the Old Vic shows, this is a play that can work a kind of magic in the theatre.
