Cymbeline, RSC Stratford and Barbican

OMG sounds dreadful.

I give up. This is dreadful. RSC have hit the lowest depths for me with this awful production. Design,speaking,length,sheer dullness....good directors graveyard it seems. What has happened to this company...? Sorry to go on but one is led to believe that RSC are leaders in theatre...they are not,outclassed and outstaged in many UK theatres now.

I am saddened and angered by what is happening.

Sounds like a good one to miss when it comes to the Barbican

I disagree with the above negative reviews. Though this is by no means a seminal production it is well worth the visit. If you forget the idea of the concept and just enjoy the show it works, though the EU reference ruins the last 5 minutes.

The deus ex machina moment is imaginatively staged and works (at least as far as I'm concerned).

Yes, the translations into other languages don't add much, and yes the feminising of certain roles does muddy the waters occaasionally, but to me it brings out some interesting moments, that bring a new 'light' to the text.

The 1997 Adrian Noble production was better, but this is a more intelligent rethink than the travesty of the 2006 Kneehigh show or the train wreck that was the Troilus and Cressida recently.

Watched this tonight. I enjoyed it. The production was not first rate. The main fault was the foreign languages being used. It was almost impossible to read the translations on the stage. I enjoyed the majority of the performances. The whole show clocked at 210mins.
Tonight has been £10 well spent

I'm going to say I enjoyed this production immensely. Even my mum, who did not like the sound of this post-apocalyptic concept, liked it by the end.

It was also understudy Temi Wilkey's turn as Imogen, due to an indisposition of Bethan Cullinane, and she gave a brilliant performance. She played the youngster perfectly, and in comparison to Emily Barber from the Sam Wanamaker production I thought she portrayed the characters journey during the second half clearly and poignantly. You see all the calamity she goes through and how it changes her, and her ending left me welling up.

The gender swap surprisingly worked. I thought it would be stupid to deny an actress the villainous queen, who has more to do than Cymbeline. But from what I could tell the Queen-now-Duke role has been cut down, giving James Clyde less time in the limelight. Instead it was in fact Gillian Bevan who had so much presence as this motherly Cymbeline overlooking her divided kingdom.

That said, giving less attention to the Duke meant that Cloten had less of a presence as well. I missed the spoilt, mother's boy brat from the Sam Wanamaker's production. Marcus Griffith's acted like an ordinary bloke, apart from his occasional stop for failling to woo Imogen. Despite the character's downsides, I felt bad for his outcome.

If there's one thing I will give the Sam Wanamaker points for though is its simplicity and clarity. I didn't mind Melly Still's 'concepts' for 75% of the production (though those subtitles were completely unnecessary). Then when it came for the battle and vision scenes I had no clue what was going on.

Sure the plot gets convoluted at that point (and I'm sure there were bits that weren't in the Sam Wanamaker version) but Melly Still throws everything into the last 25% of the production and it felt like I was going on an acid trip. Up until the last scene it was a complete mess.

I've decided to follow a sudden impulse to do the double next week - Melly Still's Cymbeline in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Matthew Dunster's Imogen in Shakespeare's Globe.

I wish I hadn't bothered to see this. It is awful in every aspect. The direction is just baffling, if you don't already know the play, except for the long long scenes which go on forever and so are a bit boring. Most of the actors have chosen to do their entire part in a funny voice, which does nothing to aid our comprehension. Innogen seems to be based on Violet Elizabeth Bott and is exceedingly irritating. Cymbeline is quiet and indistinct so I missed most of her words. Posthumus virtually sings it all in a horrid squeaky register. Cloten is about the only character to speak normally, which is a huge relief, but the actor still can't make much of the part, unfortunately. The only actor whose performance I genuinely appreciated was James Cooney as one of the secret princes.

In the programme, Greg Doran gushes that Cymbeline and King Lear together make an RSC Ancient Britain season, which is the biggeest load of bollocks I've ever read anywhere.

This production is a complete misfire and a waste of everyone's time and effort - company and audience. It's just dreadful.

Hmmm. Thanks for that. I will still see it but not with any great expectations. Certain scenes can be quite compelling when done well. Surprised you bought a programme though - won the pools ?

You have to open a lot of oysters before you find a pearl.

I have seen this play six times - the best were Peter Hall's NT production and the Cheek by Jowl version.

It was written around the time of James I vying for the British Isles to unite. The ending sees war end and the British nations and those abroad come together for peace

Shakespeare was also keen to show James as the true heir to the throne (as shown in Macbeth). James is related to the House of Tudor, a family that came from Wales, which is where Cymbeline rules from in this play.

Milford Haven is also mentioned in the play, which is where Henry Tudor landed on his way to defeating Richard III at Bosworth. A nice little shout out from Shakespeare to the Tudor Myth

I didn't notice they were selling a CD! and £5 isn't too bad. Does it include Fear No More? 

I've seen the play several times before but I couldn't follow it. The main directorial attention is on the images and they aren't synchronised with the spoken text. The most obscure section is the opening which is extraordinarily busy in an utterly baffling way, in parallel with a disconnected impenetrable monologue.

Ahead of the the recent Globe production but slightly on the long side. However I thought the gender switch for Cymbeline worked well and the cast were strong cross the board.