When asked if he is excited to see Cymbeline open at the Royal Shakespeare Theater at Stratford-Upon-Avon later this month, the Bard gave a blank stare and almost no recognition to ever hearing the name of the play he wrote in 1610.
When reminded of the plot and told that the play is indeed his, Bill sputtered and blinked his eyes a few times as he looked over the folio.
“Oh yeah, that one…bit forgettable, innit?”
We wouldn’t say forgettable, but definitely not included by any means on a Shakespeare Greatest Hits album.
The play should have all the makings of being great, however.
The story tells the tale of Cymbeline, the king of ancient Britain. His daughter Imogen marries Posthumus against her father’s will. In exile, Posthumus places a bet on the chastity of his wife, a wager he will come to regret.
Deceit, pursuit, seduction. Why is the play not better?
“Well, for one thing” said RSC Artistic Director Emiritus Gregory Dorian, “Shakespeare was trying to over do the Shakespearean tropes with this one. By this time he was aware of his own legend and celebrity, so it seems like he was trying to recapture some of that glory from his younger years.”
Dorian is hinting at the gratuitous amounts of cross-dressing, mistaken identities, and long-lost children reunited by chance and happenstance.
“It was either direct this or King John and I was not touching that pile of shite.”
One of the biggest issues that audiences have with Cymbeline is the potential for a great ending, but instead, Shakespeare takes the easy way out with an anticlimactic final scene of explanation, leading to reconciliation.
"One of my biggest gripes with the play,” commented Shakespeare. “I had this really cool scene where a character gets decapitated in Act 4, but then I couldn’t really follow it up with anything. Did I get a little lazy? Probably.”
“The other regret is that I have an entire scene where the hero takes a nap for about 40 minutes. Kind of embarrassed about this one, for sure.”
The show opens April 22nd. Don’t worry: there will be plenty of tickets available at the door.