Prior to World War II, John Gielgud (1904-2000) had strongly resisted playing what he regarded as unsympathetic parts. But his success as Angelo in Peter Brook's 1950 production of Measure for Measure took his career in a new direction, and when Brook suggested that Gielgud play the jealous and embittered Leontes in The Winter's Tale, the actor leapt at the opportunity. The critics were unanimous in their praise for both Gielgud and Brook's production of the play, rarely produced because of such structural difficulties as a sixteen year time lapse between scenes and the demise of the character Antigonus from a bear attack (resulting in the Bard's most famous stage direction, "Exit, pursued by a bear."). Much of the credit for Brook's success at overcoming the play's shortcomings were laid at Gielgud's feet. The Spectator wrote "Most of this stems from Mr. Gielgud's very fine performance as Leontes, whose jealousy is so unquestionably real and terrible that we are not worried by the fact that its causes are flimsy and its consequences far-fetched." The production ran for 166 performances in London, breaking the record set by Johnston Forbes-Robertson at the Lyceum in 1887. "It is a virtuoso performance," wrote Richard Findlater, "theatrically expert in conception and execution and the verse is spoken with subtle lucidity and delicate balance. But this is something more than a technical feat: it has the profundity of common experience, lit by the incandescent fire of maturing genius."

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