A Review of "The Winter's Tale," in New Haven Joan Marcus MERCURIAL In "A Winter's Tale," Hermione is played by Susannah Schulman, seated above with Adina Verson, left, and Sheria Irving. If only King Leontes, the main character in Shakespeare's dark romance "The Winter's Tale," were a little more like Hamlet! He would think twice before jailing his queen, the spotless Hermione, on charges of treason, conspiracy and adultery. He would pause before insisting that their newborn daughter be left to die far from their home in Sicilia. And he would shrink from ordering the murder of the man he is sure is Hermione's paramour, his lifelong best friend, King Polixenes of Bohemia. Because he's wrong, wrong, wrong. But "The Winter's Tale" isn't "Hamlet," and Sicilia isn't Denmark. There's no dithering or navel-gazing for Leontes - although he does indulge in a soliloquy now and again. Rob Campbell, starring in the Yale Repertory Theater's production, struggles mightily to make something grandly tragic of Leontes's headstrong fury. But the character's brutal, mercurial temperament overcomes Mr. Campbell's best efforts to earn our sympathy, and it is only in the play's final, magical moments that we feel for his Leontes. The faithful, wronged Hermione is a troubling character as well, too virtuous and too passive as her husband's insane jealousy deprives her of everything. When she turns up again at the end of the play as a regal statue, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch for her. Portrayed here with calm dignity by Susannah Schulman, she is as controlled as Leontes is histrionic. If the director, Liz Diamond, has created an uneven "Winter's Tale," it is largely because Shakespeare did. Critics and directors have had a hard time with it for centuries. It is a play that blows hot and cold, with its twin settings of icy Sicilia and sunny Bohemia, its highborn kings and rustic shepherds, its extremes of crime and punishment, loss and redemption. Ms. Diamond's design team - Michael Yeargan for sets, Jennifer Moeller for costumes, Matt Frey for lights, Elizabeth Atkinson for sound - has provided the production with punchy contrasts that underline the dualities in the play and its atmosphere of unreality. Mr. Yeargan has designed a stiffly geometric palace for Leontes, and Mr. Frey has lighted it with cool, silvered tones to make it seem even more forbidding. But there's soft, golden lighting and an abundance of plush carpets and pillows when the play moves to Polixenes's Bohemia. Ms. Moeller dresses the formal Sicilian court in elegant, austere clothes reminiscent of the Edwardian era in the first half of the play and the Flapper era in the second, 16 years later. When the focus shifts to Perdita, Leontes's now-grown child, who has been saved and thinks herself the daughter of a Bohemian shepherd, the costumes shift as well, to ample, relaxed lines and bright colors. The flowing printed robes and sumptuous touches of fur in the Bohemian court place it somewhere in Central Asia in the days of the Silk Road. Even the three onstage musicians get costume changes, switching from white tie and tails in the Sicilian court to circus motley in the groves of Bohemia. And needless to say, Matthew Suttor's highly charged music morphs right along with everything else, first providing a somber commentary on the disordered goings-on in Leontes's domain, then merrily accompanying the overly insistent peasant dances staged by Randy Duncan for the shepherds. There's a bit of overly insistent acting as well, from the hip-swiveling Luke Robertson as the rogue Autolycus. But for the most part, the cast - Felicity Jones as Hermione's friend Paulina; Brian Keane as her husband, Antigonus; Hoon Lee as Polixenes; and Lupita Nyong'o as Perdita - does its job in a competent if uninspired way. Shakespeare deserves better, even when he makes it hard. Maybe especially when he makes it hard. "The Winter's Tale," by William Shakespeare, is presented by Yale Repertory Theater at the University Theater, 222 York Street, New Haven, through April 7. Information and tickets: (203) 432-1234 or yalerep.org.