That stage direction

The Winter's Tale is a schizophrenic play. Up until near the end of Act III, there is an unrelenting tragic narrative in the best tradition of Othello or King Lear: the misguided protagonist who does not see the error of his ways until it is too late. From that point on, the pastoral springs into action, clearing the path to redemption. At the end, Hermione, having reportedly died in the tragic cycle, is apparently magically brought back to life upon the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Oracle.

In modern times, some people have difficulty coping with this internal shift of genre. Expectations of naturalism are partly to blame. Yet structurally, as an exploration of the diversity of emotional life, it makes perfect sense.

I will miss Clown. One of the main reasons that I like him, I think, is his involvement at the turn of the tide. Antigonus arrives in Bohemia, is warned by a mariner about the creatures of prey, and is chased off and torn apart by one. Clown witnesses. Meanwhile, the baby Perdita is found and rescued by the Old Shepherd. Clown witnesses.

My favourite moments of discovery came when exploring how the change from tragedy to pastoral comedy occurred. In my view (no doubt to be contested, for indeed, there are contesters abroad), there are three key moments in the process of the change: let's call them tragic completion, pivot, and comedic beginning. After these changes to the unfolding dramatic structure, the symmetry of a concluding courtly romance is all but inevitable.

The comedy, in my view, begins for real when Autolycus enters, singing a bawdy song. Shakespearean tragedies have comic characters, but they tend not to be rich in bawdy songs.

The pivot, in my view, comes with the Old Shepherd's speech to Clown, his son, after Antigonus is gone into the storm and Perdita is found: "thou mettest with things dying, I with things newborn". That has to be a clear signal that the winds of change have been blowing.

The tragic completion, in my view, must be our friend the bear. Shakespeare generally implied stage directions within spoken text, so the ones that he made explicit are of significance. "Exit pursued by a bear", in its brutal savagery, seems to punctuate the end of the tragedy.

In our production, a vicious rumour had it that some of the audience suspected that the white, furry bear was actually a sheep. How wonderfully appropriate! The schizophrenic change from tragic to pastoral is then concentrated into one schizophrenic image of bear-cum-sheep. In one symbolic moment, the genre changes and salvation is guaranteed.

The winter's tale? The bear is it!