“Rebecca Taichman’s ravishing production of “The Winter’s Tale” at the McCarter Theater Center…I had seen only one production before, James Lapine’s at the Public Theater in 1989, but the McCarter’s, produced in association with the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, is the one I will remember….Ms. Taichman’s direction is so assured and the staging so savvy that everything comes together…It all guides the audience through the story: Christopher Akerlind’s lighting, with towering shadows and powerful stark-and-sudden changes; Nico Muhly’s haunting music; and Matt Tierney’s booming but subtle sound design that suggests distance and internality. Magical is not a word to throw around lightly, but the climactic scene starring the exquisite statue of Hermione comes awfully close.”

– THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The magnitude of forgiveness documented in director Rebecca Taichman’s taut, visually arresting and tenderly wrought new production for Shakespeare Theatre Company is itself a kind of magic. And darned if, in inspirational sync with her designers and cast — particularly, Mark Harelik as Leontes — she doesn’t compel us all to a wistfully moving consideration of the acts of this foolish king….. Taichman’s previous assignments for the company have included, most significantly, a “Taming of the Shrew” that placed fuming Kate in a body-conscious contemporary culture of the kind that could drive any smart woman to violence. Her “Winter’s Tale,” a co-production with Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center, is as complexly emotionally textured as her “Shrew” was topically savvy. The proof is in the feelings stirred by that marvelous reunion scene, rendered onstage at the Lansburgh as a miracle of expressly theatrical proportions…. Paulina’s dark arts are a mirage. It’s the theater’s spell that conducts the enchantment….

Taichman’s vision for the piece is fresh and intimate. Nine actors — all commendable — play all of the roles, and some of the doubling in parts offers clever commentary.

… In blazing her own trail through Shakespeare’s tale, Taichman returns us to the consolingly familiar terrain of the playwright’s massive heart.

– WASHINGTON POST