Short answers, pulled from the story.
Shakespeare's late romances are a grouping of his final plays: Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Cymbeline; The Winter's Tale; and The Tempest. The Two Noble Kinsmen, co-written with John Fletcher, is sometimes included. They follow his major tragedies and mix tragic elements with happy endings, magic, and reunited families.
Edward Dowden first used the term "romances" for these works in his 1877 book Shakspere. He chose the label because the plays resemble the late medieval and early modern literary genre of romances, where stories unfold across vast distances of space and time.
The late romances rely on grand themes rather than specific comic moments, and they open with tragic or potentially tragic situations that are resolved by the end. They also feature older men more prominently, include magic and supernatural figures, and focus on the reuniting of long-separated family members, particularly fathers and daughters.
Two main influences shaped the late romances. John Fletcher's development of tragicomedy provided a model of serious subject matter paired with happy endings. The elaborate courtly masques staged by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones influenced the plays' visual spectacle and supernatural scenes. The preference of King James I, who succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603 and favored romances over tragedies, also played a role.
Directors have taken very different approaches to the moment when a bear chases Antigonus off stage. In 1976, Trevor Nunn and John Barton cast John Nettles to play both Time and the bear. At Stratford-upon-Avon in 1986, Terry Hands used a bearskin rug that rose off the ground to pursue Antigonus.
The Tempest has been adapted for film more often than any of the other late romances, with major versions appearing in 1908, 1948, 1956, 1979, 1982, 1991, and 2010. Settings have ranged from the American west and outer space to a Greek island and a crumbling Scottish mansion.