I want to salute the performance by a group of students this past weekend of Shakespeare's late play, "The Winter's Tale." As poetic drama it contains passages of verse and prose as difficult as to be found anywhere in Shakespeare. The production, directed and produced by Kate Robinson '08 in Studio 3, Webster Hall, was notable for the clarity and lucidity with which difficult speeches were performed, and at a pace that managed to conclude things in just over two hours. Some of us remember how Shakespeare at Kirby Theater used to be a staple of Amherst College dramatics, and this "amateur" production reminds us it can still be done, intelligently and humorously.

William H. Pritchard

Professor of English