Shakespeare was a great re-imaginer, frequently basing his plays on existing stories. Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap of Time is a response to his late play The Winter’s Tale, which revolves around lost children, jealousy and salvation. The drama has personal significance for Winterson: as an adopted child herself, the story of Perdita, the abandoned baby in The Winter’s Tale, has resonances in her own life. She was brought up by Pentecostal adoptive parents in the North of England, an experience she wrote about in her first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and more recently in her memoir Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? The Gap of Time has echoes of The Winter’s Tale, but tells a contemporary story of betrayal, paranoia and redemption. The result is “a shining delight of a novel.” (The New York Times) Expect a zestful performance.

Tickets: Lecture $50
Lecture & Reception $150