The Winter’s Tale Review by Rory Leahy Most Shakespeare fans probably know his two most common genres were tragedies (everyone dies at the end) and comedies (everyone gets married at the end) Lesser known are in between plays like The Winter’s Tale that are often characterized as “romances” for their tonal mixture and fairy tale qualities. In the current Chicago Shakespeare Theater production, King Leontes (Demetrios Troy, what an appropriately Shakespearean name!) becomes violently jealous of his childhood friend and fellow king (it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it), Polixenes (Chike Johnson), convinced he is having an affair with Leontes’ wife, Hermione (Jessica Dean Turner). This leads him to order Polixenes killed and subject Hermione to a cruel and humiliating public trial, along with all manner of other tyrannical activities. The main plot resembles that of Shakespeare’s more famous Othello and Much Ado About Nothing , in which jealous, paranoid men license themselves to ...