Word: perdita
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Shakespeare mentions the resemblance between Hermione and her teenage daughter Perdita. And, following a 19th-century precedent, Kahn has once again entrusted both roles to Maria Tucci, since the two characters are on stage together only in the final scene. Kahn gets around this problem by cutting Perdita's half dozen lines and using a stand-in facing away from the audience. I suppose it's ungallant to suggest that Miss Tucci can no longer really pass for a teenager, but she makes an appealing attempt. As Queen Hermione, she can speak eloquently when required to, and stand immobile...
Victor Garber, who plays Perdita's young suitor Florizel, is entirely new to me, and he's a real find. He is exceedingly attractive, the model of an earnest, ardent innocent. He speaks well (unlike Richard Backus last year), and exudes love. One could not ask for better. Richard Dix remains properly warm-hearted as the Old Shepherd, although he shaves off 13 years from the age Shakespeare puts into his mouth; and this year he has a new son in John Tillinger, who makes a droll dimwitted dupe...
Kahn has assigned the roles of both Queen Hermione and her daughter Perdita to Maria Tucci. He is thus following the lead of Mary Anderson, who in 1887, two years before retiring at 30, made a great hit playing both parts. The doubling of roles was of course a commonplace in Shakespeare's company. The problem here is that Hermione and Perdita both appear together in the final scene. Although Perdita has only six lines, it is crucial for the harmony and symmetry of the ending that nobody be missing, that we see two middle-aged couples and one young...
...Florizel, Polixenes's teenage son and suitor of Perdita, Richard Backus is an attractive chap. But he is not at ease with classical poetic diction. One is constantly aware of listening to an actor mouthing lines rather than a person voicing thoughts...
...majesty of the two kings.) Jeremiah Riemer as the rogue Autolycus is a particularly entertaining miscreant and Robert Cohen is deft in the role of a faithful courtier. Other actors's readings are often engaging and effective--Charles Genrich's rustic Clearius and Eleni Constantine's dewy-eyed Perdita add sparkle to the humorous second portion of the play...