Started rehearsing the Scene that Never Ends tonight, aka Act IV, scene 4. A tiring evening, but entertaining.
Some really nice stuff going on between Florizel and Perdita. The challenge for those two is to be sweet and happily in love without being saccharine. One way they've found to deal with that is to play up an idea developed in read-through. What ends up happening is that Florizel is constantly trying to get his hands on Perdita, which she allows to a point and then slips out of his hands if he starts to get too forward. It doesn't come across as teasing, and makes for some really pretty scenes between the two. (They make a very cute couple, if they can forgive me for saying so.)
Then we had the whole long sheep-shearing festival scene to wrangle through. Much much work, and much hilarity. The interactions with Mopsa, Dorcas, the Clown, and Autolycus are very funny. It was even more amusing tonight, since Chepe was stepping in for Mopsa to block her stuff. Considering that we've got a bit in there where Mopsa essentially flings herself at Autolycus, this was rather amusing (and disconcerting for Paul).
An evening of great silliness. The material is rather silly, and everyone started to get a little punchy towards the end. But Polixenes' final explosion at his son came off in very fine style indeed.