ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

All the performances in this production are polished. It's a pure pleasure to hear the lines delivered for their meter still ring with emotion, and Emma Fielding is particularly strong as Helena. She manages to make listeners feel both the vulnerability and the strength of her badly treated character. However, the performance as a whole is not fully satisfying; too many of the play's high points depend upon deception, for example, the display of key items (like Bertram's ring) for the sight of the audience, or upon character reactions. Partially, this is due to the extreme faithfulness with which the stage version is adapted; a more liberal adaptation might have captured key points more successfully. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 03/JAN 04]