Cymbeline
14 January 2025
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare’s lesser staged plays, is currently running until 20 April at the atmospheric and cosy Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre. The wooden, fully candle lit little theatre is always a great location to witness a play, and it works incredibly well for this beautiful version of the romantic come-tragedy. In this production, many roles have been swapped out for women, god Jupiter is now Gaia, and the whole show is underlined with a gorgeous soundscape achieved by three musicians utilising string instruments, sound bowls, glasses, rocks, straw, and other natural materials, as well as haunting natural vocalisations to underline the mood and action on the stage below. This ethereal soundscape really sets the play apart and deepens the moodiness, adding a beautifully organic feel to this version of the play that heavily leans into female power.
There is a lot going on in this play, with many intertwining plot lines concerning power, loyalty, love, and family ties. Cymbeline, Rome’s vassal Queen of Britain, is enraged that her only daughter, Innogen, has married Posthumus, another woman. Without a man in the marriage, there will be no heir, which would mean an end to the bloodline. The queen previously had twins who disappeared when they were babies, some twenty years ago. Without these older children, all her hopes for the future lay squarely on Innogen’s shoulders. Posthumus is exiled and Cymbeline, as well as her husband who secretly plots to kill the queen, petition Innogen to accept Cloten, her step brother as a more suitable match. While in exile in Italy, Posthumus wagers with Iachomo that Innogen’s chastity is unparalleled and he won’t be able to seduce her. From there, a slew of mistaken identities, intrigue and betrayal, murder and war make for an incredibly convoluted but equally fascinating story.
The stage-dressing is, as usual, minimal in this theatre, with a shimmery silver velvet covering the stage and walls, pare bones climbing up the back of the stage, and not much more. Intriguingly, the titular queen is dressed in a silver velvet shirt, connecting her to the world around her, while the rest of the characters are held in greys and browns for Britain, and earthy maroon colours in Italy. The dynamic of shifting the play into a female-led power dynamic is compelling, both from a queer-inclusion as well as a feminist perspective. The women in the story are strong in their convictions and honest, while the men are often portrayed as more brutish, driven by baser instincts, deriding women and their characters in contrast to these same women often holding power over them. It’s a riveting flipping of the script with just a few changes that work incredibly well.
With strong performances, it is thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking, skilfully weaving an intricate plot without being confusing or too much. Quite a feat with a play that has as much going on simultaneously as Cymbeline! It could use a little more stage dressing to denote the various different settings, but this is generally not easy to do in a tiny theatre space as this one. Having many characters dress up as other characters is handled incredibly well, though a few actors double-rolling does add a little confusion occasionally, though this is quickly alleviated through the action once these characters start engaging in their scenes.
A very solid production that rethinks the play without changing it significantly. A beautiful feat of modernising and updating a play while staying true to its character. Cymbeline is full of charm and wit, fast paced and stuffed to the brim with love, power, and death.
