Off to a slow start reading, I must admit. Even though I'm in the darn thing I've only really gotten into the first act of The Winter's Tale. There's plenty, however, in the one act.
Here's the set-up. Leontes, king of Sicilia, has his good friend Polixenes, king of Bohemia, to stay at his court. He was there 9 months earlier as well. Polixenes is leaving, but Leontes tries to convince him to stay. Leontes tells his wife, Hermione, to convince Polixenes, and after three little speeches, he agrees. Suddenly, and not just suddenly but completely out of the blue, Leontes is filled with a deep sense of jealousy, believing that Polixenes's acquiescence with Hermione to stay stems from a love affair between the two. Within the short span of three pages he is convinced that his best friend has betrayed him, his wife is a whore, his unborn child is a bastard, and even his young son Mamillius isn't his either. The transformation is astonishing, and certainly a challenge for any actor.
I was talking with my friend who is playing Leontes, discussing the possibilities for the role. One school of thought he mentioned is that Leontes might be sort of an old kook, completely wild and insecure and moody. Which, we agreed, just seems boring and no fun to watch. However, I think there is some kernel of truth in this theory. Any man who would get this jealous this quickly on so little evidence must have some kind of self-esteem issue. He couldn't be a complete whiner like the character mentioned above, however; he's the king, he seems to have managed his kingdom very well and competently before now, as well as being good friends personally and politically with his king-neighbor in Bohemia. They mention shannigans they got into as boys, so I can't imagine him as some socially-challenged brat who got shoved into a position of power without knowing how to manage it. But why the sudden reversal of everything that he has gained and loved in his life? Jealousy is not a new thing in the plays of Shakespeare, but often it is fueled by some nefarious schemer who plants false evidence and purposely agitates weaknesses of character, like Iago in Othello. Here, no one agitates it but Leontes himself. I suppose you could manipulate the portrayal of this so that Hermione and Polixenes could be extremely flirty and all up in each other, but I don't think the script calls for that at all.
As an actor, I try to rationalize everything, think everything through logically. It's a good thing to do, but occasionally I have to remember that people do not always act rationally, and often this occurs around objects that they love the most dearly, that which they treasure and would collapse if they lost. Leontes is obviously not being rational here. How does he becomes so frightened of thinking that his entire marraige is a sham, his children are not his, and his best friend for years has been stabbing him in the back? I suppose it happens. In the period, cuckoldry, or your wife cheating on you with another man, was a very big fear. It brought not only social humiliation, but other repercussions. Your wife was your property, given to you once her father gave her up. Her children by you were your property. Another man screwing your wife is not only insulting, it's like usurping what is rightfully yours; it "unmans" you, takes away your control. Perhaps a king wouldn't be bothered since he's in control of so much, but maybe it's more exacerbating because as king he should be in control of all, least of all his own wife. So what's the aggravant? Is the kingdom in some kind of political turmoil? Is he feeling old and unattractive these days? Has their sex life been not so exciting lately due to Hermione's pregnancy? Does he get tired of all the court lords hitting on his wife?
Maybe this statement isn't justified, but I believe I know more about jealousy than the average person. I deal with it almost on a weekly basis. Not because I'm necessarily the jealous type. The relationship I have, its open nature, is just more prone than others to inciting jealousy for me and my partner. It's a natural emotion and, like all other emotions, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with it. Most days I'm fine, but I do have my bad days. When that happens, it's never my boyfriend; it's always something with me, something I'm dealing with, some self-esteem issue that's flaring up. It's not because I'm a kook, socially messed up, introverted, fragile. It's because I'm a human, and I have insecurities that I can't out-logic 100% of the time. So I get Leontes in that respect. I have to cut him a little slack.
What depths remained to be plumbed are why does he take that insecurity, whatever it may be, to the extremes that he does. Again, while they are shocking (he tells a servant to poison Polixenes, he publicly humiliates and rejects his wife and children, causing their deaths and sending the baby to be abandoned in the woods, threatening to burn other people just mildly involved, etc.) I can understand the downward spiral of this kind of flare-up. I remember times when I've told people that I really loved and wanted to be with that they should leave me immediately. It's not what I wanted, but it's what I felt I couldn't avoid, the inevitable, where my issues had led me to. We end up in the strangest positions, so contrary to our true desires. It's psychologically both perverted and fascinating.
Maybe the question then isn't how can Leontes be doing all of this so intensely and so quickly. Maybe the question is why, even though we have similar experiences, can we not recognize, or choose not to recognize, the same kind of personal despair.
You could play Leontes as an insecure oddball. You could play him as an evil, paranoid misogynist. I think the only successful option is to find his humanity. In the end, for all his actions, his feelings are not so alien from ours.
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