Where to start? The modern theatre loves The Winter's Tale, most recently seen as a highly acclaimed Christopher Wheeldon ballet. If we come back to this beautiful play time and again, I suspect it is partly for spiritual reasons. It provides, of course, a searing study of jealousy: a more plausible one, in fact, than Othello. But the play also shows that human life and the earth itself are capable of renewal, rebirth and resurrection.
My first Winter's Tale was at Stratford in 1960 when Eric Porter was Leontes and Peggy Ashcroft was Paulina: I can still hear Porter's incredulity when, at the trial of Hermione, he cried "Your actions are my dreams?" Since then, I've seen a clutch of fine performances. As Leontes, I remember Ian McKellen, Antony Sher and Greg Hicks – all for the RSC, Simon Russell Beale for the Sam Mendes Bridge Project, and Tim Pigott-Smith and Alex Jennings for the National. But other performances also leap to mind: Eileen Atkins as a forbidding Paulina in Peter Hall's 1988 production; a genuinely pregnant Samantha Bond as Hermione in Adrian Noble's 1992 revival; and Alexandra Gilbreath, in the same role in Greg Doran's 1999 production, as a pale figure extending a compassionate hand to her tyrant husband.
But, if Porter remains my favourite Leontes, one particular production stands out: one by Declan Donnellan for St Petersburg's Maly theatre in the late 1990s. It caught both the frenzy of Sicilia and the fun of Bohemia and contained one breathtaking moment when an old woman who swept the stage between scenes turned into the symbolic figure of Time and threw back her cloak to reveal herself as young and beautiful. That was as potent as the always-moving image of Hermione's statue coming to life and reminded us this is a play about transformative magic.
• What are your favourite versions of The Winter's Tale? Let us know in the comments below
• Audio slideshow: Edward Watson and Lauren Cuthbertson on The Winter's Tale
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