I’ll be frank, I don’t spend much (any) time reading Shakespeare. I’m not filling weekends with sonnets or amusing myself with the Bard’s wittier plays. My Shakespearean experience is largely confined to school days; performances of A Midsummer Nights Dream in Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens; and a few months during my childhood when we lived in a small town near Stratford-upon-Avon. So why was I drawn to a modern retelling of The Winter’s Tale? It was all about Jeanette Winterson, whose work I greatly admire.

The Winter’s Tale tells the story of a king whose jealousy results in the banishment of his baby daughter and the death of his beautiful wife. His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited. In Winterson’s version, The Gap of Time, it’s all gangsters, gaming and pop stars, and against this backdrop, the themes of jealousy, loyalty and redemption are preserved. Continue reading →