Production: Die Wintersprokie (AFR)
Text: Anna Neethling-Pohl
Director: Gerben Kamper
Venue: Wynand Mouton Theatre
Date: 21 & 22 September 2009
Time: 19h30

Tickets:
R 30.00 Adults
R 25.00 Pensioners, scholars & students
R 25.00 Block bookings 10+
R 15.00 Club Theatron members

Tickets available at Computicket (Mimosa Mall & any Checkers) or at the door.

“Die Wintersprokie” (The Winter’s Tale) is a fantasy filled play by William Shakespeare and begins in Sicilia where Leontes (the King of Sicilia) is trying to convince his best friend Polixenes (the King of Bohemia) to extend his stay in Sicilia a little longer. Without any success Leontes turns to his wife, Hermione, for help. With great determination, Hermione succeeds in convincing Polixenes to stay without realising the consequences it entails by doing so. Leontes, in a moment of absolute absurdity, accuses Hermione and Polixenes of having an affair. His jealousy gets the better of him and thus starts plotting Polixenes’ death and throws Hermione in prison. While in prison Hermione gives birth to Leontes’s little baby girl, but Leontes, who is still overtaken by his madness, disowns her and orders Antigonus to abandon her in the desert. Leontes’s life gradually starts falling apart with one tragedy after another and soon starts realising what his jealousy has cost him. Will he be able to make amen’s or will the King of Sicilia fall from his throne?

This play is filled with lots of drama, accusations of a love affair, an abandoned baby daughter, a king’s descent into madness, three deaths, a marriage and finally a miracle. “Die Wintersprokie” (translated by the late veteran actress and theatre personality Anna Neethling-Pohl) is a wonderful play that is performed for the first time in Bloemfontein by the students of the Drama Department at the University of the Free State. Come and enjoy this traditional Shakespeare story that promises to keep young and old on the edge of their seats.