A winter’s tale on a summer’s night

Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is indeed a unique experience. Great setting (in the gardens of the Colleges), live music and full period costume. Everyone’s welcome to have a picnic before the performance. And a glass of wine under the stars. You might think I’m dreaming… well, I’m not.

I saw The Winter’s Tale at King’s College Gardens on Saturday evening and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it’s classified as a comedy, mostly because it ends with a reconciliation, but is it really a comedy? The play has both tragic and comic elements, quite a few characters die through the play and I wonder: is the happy end enough to make it more a comedy than a tragedy?

Anyway, let’s not worry about it at this point. Some of Shakespeare’s plays, which may well be called tragicomedies, have often been called romances. Ha ha ha, I guess tragicomedy is a good name for a romance )