‘A sad tale’s best for winter,’ says the doomed young prince Mamillius — but in Shakespeare’s late romance, The Winter’s Tale, joy and new life follow sadness, just as spring and summer do winter.

The Mill Theatre will produce this rarely performed work by the Bard in an abridged youth production, directed by Heidi Silberman.

Eight emerging Canberra actors aged between 18 and 25 will play 20 characters between them.

“Shakespeare is the best,” Silberman says. “It’s the quickest way to learn the most about acting and character and voice, and taking text off the page and performing it.”

The Mill’s owner, Lexi Sekuless, agrees; for her, Shakespeare is the Olympics of acting. An actress who has performed at the Globe, she is coaching the young performers in Shakespearean verse.

Silberman has cut the play to approximately 80 minutes, concentrating its sprawling five acts and almost 30 original characters into an intimate production without interval.

In her view, the play deals with “how men use power, how women deal with that, and how women pick up the pieces after men have made a big mess of abusing their power”.

“There are themes here that haven’t changed,” Silberman says. “Human nature hasn’t changed in 400 years, and this play is just as relevant now as it was then. It’s a great mirror to look at our society through.”

The play opens in Sicilia, where — like Othello before him — King Leontes becomes falsely convinced that his wife has cuckolded him.

“Leontes has so much power and control that, when there’s a situation he has made up in his head that he has no power or control over, he does everything he can to scramble for power,” Silberman says. “He destroys his family.”

Tragedy strikes his son and his wife, and even his baby daughter is abandoned on the impossible coast of Bohemia. Exit a courtier, in one of the most famous stage directions, pursued by a bear.

Sixteen years later, the action resumes, not as tragedy, but as pastoral, with shepherds, pickers-up of unconsidered trifles, and contested love. Prince Florizel of Bohemia (a name Stevenson later borrowed for The New Arabian Nights) loves the rustic maiden Perdita, but his father, Polixenes, violently opposes the match.

“Both Polixenes and Leontes are kings, but there’s also this issue of family violence,” Silberman says. “The way Leontes treats his family is horrific — and it’s relevant to our culture where a woman is killed by a man every week. I’m interested in shining a light on how women in this situation deal with, fight against, come through this.”

Although The Winter’s Tale looks at serious issues, Silberman says the play is a lot of fun. There are even some humorous sheep puppets.

At the end, a statue miraculously comes to life, and families are reconciled in one of Shakespeare’s most sublime endings.

Most people have probably never seen The Winter’s Tale before, Silberman says, making this production a rare chance to do so.

“We should take every opportunity to see Shakespeare when we can. It’s an example of what’s possible in Canberra — and it’s professional quality.

“We have age and experience combined with youth and enthusiasm. That alone is reason to come to the show: to see these up-and-coming performers taking on roles they didn’t expect to be given, absorbing skills, and portraying what they’ve learned.”

The Winter’s Tale, by Shakespeare, directed by Heidi Silberman, at The Mill Theatre from 5 to 15 August. Tickets: https://collections.humanitix.com/the-winters-tale