The Winter's Tale

If this be magic, let it be an art

Christopher Wheeldon takes on Shakespeare's late romance and 'Problem Play' with grace in this ballet adaptation. A psychological drama with a rather unexpected happy ending, it examines the all-consuming effect of jealousy, and the consequences that come with hardening your heart against the world.

Working once again with Joby Talbot and Bob Crowley to build a world of fantasy that encompasses the tragedy of love and hate, tha bubbles over with the innovation we've come to expect from Wheeldon's increasingly incredible works.

Exit, pursued by a bear

The Winter's Tale is the story of King Leontes of Sicily and his growing suspicion that the child carried by his wife Hermione is not fathered by him but instead his best pal King Polixenes of the Bohemians. In a paranoid rage, he throws Hermione in prison, tells his manservant to poison his old friend, and orders the newly born girl to be abandoned to fate.

16 years later, he is informed of the pair's innocence and sets out to right the wrongs and find his daughter who has survived, and curiously ended up being raised kindly old shepherd...