Cymbeline

[ellen_datlow]

I went with two friends to see Shakespeare's Cymbeline last night. What a lousy play. The first half's good, but the second is silly and way tooooo long (we didn't get out till 11pm). I can see why it's not performed very often. The last twenty minutes are taken up with increasingly ridiculous explanations of things we've already seen throughout the play--half the subplots could have been cut. Boy, did S need an editor for this particular work.

Luckily, the sets were striking and the acting usually very good, with Martha Plimpton, Michael Cerveris, Phylicia Rashad, and John Cullum. Now I've seen it I don't have to see it again. The three of us agreed on this.

Comments

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

So what did you think of it and who was in it when you saw it?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Didn't much admire the play, for reasons as stated above: it has more problems than it has sub-plots, which is too many. But I needed to see it once, because I'm a completist and it was almost the last Shakespeare I hadn't seen - and the RSC is always a draw; and, mmm, Emma Fielding! Anton Lesser!

And then last year the RSC was working in combination with other companies to produce every play WS wrote, so we saw it again in a really inventive co-production with Kneehigh Theatre. Sometimes the production can outshine the play, y'know?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, great productions with great casts can "disguise" many mediocre plays. But a truly bad play... not sure ;-)