Cymbeline - 2016 - West End
£10–75
Shakespeare’s coming-of-age romance is stunningly retold for the 21st century. An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain that is alienated, insular and on the brink of disaster.
When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile, Innogen’s husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful, forcing her away from court on a journey fraught with danger.
Gillian Bevan plays Cymbeline, the first woman to take on the title role for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Melly Still, whose credits include Coram Boy for the National Theatre and The Cunning Little Vixen for Glyndebourne, directs the rarely performed play of power, jealousy, sexuality and identity.
Schedule
Running Time: Three hours, with one interval
Twitter Watch
by Rona Kelly
- November 4, 2016
Over the next six years, the RSC aims to produce every single Shakespeare play. Its 2016 season features Cymbeline, one of the lesser known but not lesser performed plays; this production is a transfer from Stratford-Upon-Avon, and there have been two productions at Shakespeare's Globe this year alone. Why the sudden revival? A fool boasts 'Britain is a world by itself' (and no, I don't mean Nigel Farage). In a post-Brexit Britain, these words ring truer than ever before in this bold production, which ironically seems to be lacking a sense of unity and cohesion too.
