ouch! clarity, please!

[Antoinette]

The play transported me to a fascinating place and time in which I've had great interest. I do know it is not meant to represent actuality of occurences but imaginings about them. Yet somehow it connected me to what WAS real then. For the first time I got a feel for There and Then. I did not find the plot loose but raced along with its advances, in excitement. As in many of the plays, the psychological shift Posthumus underwent at Iachimo's deceptive report in Act II, sc. iv seems extreme in the compressed time given but a sensitive performance may make the disillusionment & contempt convincing. How was that worked out in your production?

[Didi]

I've been in Cymbeline and have studied it extensively and can can sympathize with those who might find the play rather complex and confusing. This summary does not help simplify matters, though. This happens to be one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and in terms of attribution, if you do a comparison of styles, you'll find that most of the devices used in this play, as well as the language itself, fit very nicely in with the rest of his works. What is a bit frustrating to most readers/viewers is catagorizing the play. Many place it in the Romance or the Comedy catagory, but if I had to catagorize it, I'd put it in it's own catagory: Realistic Fantasy. The different settings - rustic Wales, imperial Rome, and feudal England - as well as the different character types do not allow it to be catagorized with the other High Comedies or the Late Romances, but that by no means makes it inferior. The main character, Imogen, is much more reminiscent of Roslind from 'As You Like It' or Viola from 'Twelfth Night' than Miranda from 'Tempest.' With staging, I've found the best way is to keep things simplistic. Using three cubes allows you to arrange them to be a table and two chairs in Italy, a throne for Cymbeline, rocks outside of Belarius' cave, or what you will. The more complicated the performance is, the more confused the audience is. This play can be fantastic, if only you take the time to understand it. Thanks, Jupiter!