Two Shakespearean masterpieces in one of Turin's most evocative historical spaces, the eighteenth-century Teatro Carignano: for English Meadow, the summer season of the Teatro Stabile di Torino, Winter's Tale and Love's Labours Lost, directed by Jurij Ferrini, will be staged as national premieres on alternate evenings from 19 June to 13 July 2025. Two brilliant texts, set in Italy and Spain, two perfect texts for the imagery of love, misunderstandings, suspicions and happy endings.
THE WINTER’S TALE
Shakespeare keeps the audience in suspense, masterfully playing on the alternation between drama and comedy, poetry and brutality. A melancholic and moving story written in 1611 and set in Messina, The Winter's Tale opens in a gloomy atmosphere. Leontes, king of Sicily, is struck by a sudden and insane jealousy: he suspects that the child his wife Hermione is carrying is the fruit of adultery consummated with his friend Polyxenes, king of Bohemia. Hermione dies of grief at the unjust accusation and the child, meanwhile born, is disowned and abandoned. But after sixteen years, the slandered innocence will have its redemption and love will triumph.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
Love's Labour's Lost is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, written in 1594. Amusing and light, it must dominate the power and ambiguity of language, a deceptive as much as unconscious instrument of deception and self-deception. The most literary of Shakespeare's comedies is also a lively feast of words overflowing with bickering, double entendres, crossed allusions, an amused homage to the art of witty and gallant conversation. At the court of Navarre, King Ferdinand and three of his gentlemen have vowed to devote themselves for some time only to study. The arrival of the Princess of France with her retinue reveals just how ephemeral the promise is: to the sound of secret missives, masquerades, verbal skirmishes and clumsy courtship, love makes its way into the hearts of damsels and knights.
Teatro Carignano National Premiere
From 19 June to 13 July 2025
THE WINTER’S TALE
By William Shakespeare
With (in alphabetical order): Vittorio Camarota, Roberta Calia, Cecilia Bramati, Jurij Ferrini, Samuele Finocchiaro, Matteo Federici, Giordana Faggiano, Sara Gedeone, Paolo Carenzo, Francesco Gargiulo, Raffaele Musella, Aron Tewelde
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
By William Shakespeare
With (in alphabetical order): Vittorio Camarota, Roberta Calia, Cecilia Bramati, Jurij Ferrini, Samuele Finocchiaro, Matteo Federici, Giordana Faggiano, Sara Gedeone, Paolo Carenzo, Francesco Gargiulo, Raffaele Musella, Aron Tewelde
Director Jurij Ferrini
Teatro Stabile Torino – National Theatre
Cover photo: Director Jurij Ferrini (c) Luigi De Palma
