On & Off Broadway

'Cymbeline'

Review by Elyse Trevers

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Even if you’ve never seen it, Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, will feel familiar. However, I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to the three-hour evening performance at Central Park. Yet the attraction of the setting of The Delacorte Theatre and lure of performers Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater (Public Theatre regulars) as well as Patrick Page, Kate Burton and Broadway’s Raul Esparza, was irresistible.

I’m really glad that I went. The latest presentation of free Shakespeare in the Park was one of the most delightfully entertaining shows I’ve seen there. Like all of Shakespeare’s plays, Cymbeline is complicated and there’s a brief, albeit complex, synopsis in the Playbill. However, once the action unfolds, all confusion is dispelled.

Rabe plays Imogen, the dutiful daughter of King Cymbeline, who has dared to marry a commoner, Posthumus. When the King (Patrick Page) banishes him, Posthumus (Hamish Linklater) flees to Italy. When his wife dies, Cymbeline remarries and his evil redheaded Queen (Kate Burton) schemes to get her son, Cloten, on the throne (a dual role for Linklater.) Once in Italy, Iachimo (Raul Esparza) bets Posthumus that he can seduce Imogen. Add a poisonous potion, a war between Italy and Britain, a beheading, a family reunion and more, and it’s typical Shakespeare. Despite some serious events, much of the play is funny and entertaining. The bad guys get their just rewards, the lovers get back together, and a family is reunited. 

The Central Park audience watches as a troupe of performers puts on a play. It sees the behind-the-scene workings as well as the action onstage. When not onstage, actors sit in chairs behind the raised platform, waiting for their next cues. There’s a double proscenium and the smaller one bears a big poster reading “The Story of Cymbeline.” The audience is very much part of the show with three rows set up alongside the stage, and sometimes the actors interact with them. 

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