[NEohioPAL] Review of "Cymbeline" by Ohio Shakespeare Festival

[Bob Abelman]

Convoluted 'Cymbeline' given superb staging by OSF

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 8/16/13

 

 

It has been speculated by scholars and others with excessive time on their hands that Shakespeare's plays may well have been penned by others.  

 

Playwright Christopher Marlowe, essayist Francis Bacon, William Stanley the 6th Earl of Derby, adventurer Walter Raleigh, and cultured aristocrat Edward de Vere the 17th Earl of Oxford have all been suspected of writing - in part or in their entirety - plays attributed to the Bard.  

 

"Cymbeline," currently being staged by Ohio Shakespeare Festival at the Akron oasis of Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, leaves you with the impression that they all had a hand in this one. And no one wants the credit. 

 

This is not Shakespeare's best play, though it is one of his final, most convoluted and least produced plays. It contains so many incongruous subplots that involve so many incompatible characters seemingly ripped from the pages of Shakespeare's other comedies, tragedies and historical dramas that it is difficult to classify.  

 

"Cymbeline" takes place in King Cymbeline's (Timothy Champion) court.  It revolves around his only child, Imogen (Tess Burgler) - a loving daughter and a bit of a spitfire - whose marriage to the handsome and loyal Posthumus (Bernard Bygott) is unpopular with Cymbeline's conniving second wife (Holly Humes).  She wants Imogen to marry her spoiled and imbecilic son, Cloten (Geoff Knox), so to keep the crown under her control.  

 

We learn that the King had two sons (Andrew Gombas and Joe Pine) from his first marriage, who were stolen as babies and raised to adulthood in the wilds of the Welch woods by the banished Lord Belarius (Terry Burgler).

 

Posthumus goes to Rome where, in a room full of foreign dignitaries, he brags about his wife's chastity and the sinister Iachimo (Andrew Cruse) makes a high-stakes bet that he can bed the princess.  He fails but lies about his conquest to Posthumus who, enraged in true Shakespeare fashion, sends word to his servant Pisanio (Benjamin Fortin) to murder his wife.

 

He does not.  Instead, Pisanio facilitates Imogen's cross-dressing (who saw that coming?) so she can leave the palace and find Posthumus in Rome.  In her travels, she encounters her brothers in the woods, is assumed dead because she has taken a poison potion that was supplied by the evil Queen, and finds a beheaded body mistakenly assumed to be Posthumus.    

 

Forget the 17th Earl of Oxford; this could have been written by the Brothers Grimm.

 

Oh. and there's a war between the Roman Empire and Britain because Cymbeline refuses to pay his taxes; Postumus is visited in a dream by ghosts; the god Jupiter makes a cameo appearance in the form of dry ice; and Imogen is befriended by a Roman officer (Jason Leupold) and returns home.

 

Much of this three-hour production is spent relaying exposition and each character's back story.  At the end of the play, with the entire cast of characters on stage, all the mistaken identities that drive this play are quickly corrected and an attempt is made to fill in all the narrative gaps, justify the many highly implausible plot twists, and recount all the forced coincidences as if repetition leads to credibility.  

 

The play ends happily and, happily, ends.  Yes, "Cymbeline" is one exhausting enterprise.  

 

Yet, it is worth the effort because this production, under Terry Burgler's superb direction, is a good one.  

 

All of the featured performers are eloquent in their Shakespeare-speak and carve out realistic characters from their mouthfuls of dialogue.  They mine all the humor to be found in this play and roll with the punches when the audience finds some sketchy dramatic moments unintentionally comical.

 

Burgler utilizes the stationary set of a two-story house's exterior to his full advantage and manages to render a range of locations with clever staging and a bit of slight-of-hand under Buddy Taylor's lighting design.  Jonathan Fletcher's costuming is wonderfully Elizabethan.

 

The pace of this production leaves wind-burns on patrons in the first three rows, which is a double-edged sword of sorts.

 

The quickly spoken dialogue and expedient scene changes keep things flowing and hold the audience's attention.  However, some actors are so eager to get off-stage to make way for the next scene that lines get lost in transit or are spoken so quickly as to not allow time for our modern-day brains to translate.  Also, the fast pace sometimes keeps emotions from catching up to the dialogue, which makes some acting choices seem like acting choices.    

 

This production of "Cymbeline" has value because of its rarity but also because of its integrity.  It is worth seeing.  

 

"Cymbeline" continues through August 18 at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, Akron.   For tickets, $15 to $30, call 330-673-8761 or visit http://www.ohioshakespeare.com.

 

 
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