Cymbeline (review)

Cheek by Jowl's production of Cymbeline began with a thunder clap that segued into a waltz as, downstage, a sumptuous royal blue curtain rose upon a minimalist set. A single chair, stage right, accompanied by an elegant side-table furnished with champagne and crystal glasses indicated that we were in Cymbeline's grand hall. The music and costumes placed the action in Britain between the First and Second World Wars. In an opening vignette the king, in his full-dress military uniform, danced a couple steps with his daughter as the spotlight followed. Suddenly Imogen, her deep red strapless gown rustling furiously, tore herself away, running out of the spotlight into the dimness where Posthumous stood apart, looking like a bespectacled Bogart in a thirties trenchcoat—garbed not for the ball, but for his impending journey into exile. As Imogen ran into his arms, the wicked queen appeared, preternaturally tall and blonde and wearing a shimmering blue gown with a red royal sash to match her husband's.

Figure 1.

Imogen ( Jodie McNee) and Cloten (Tom Hiddleston) in Cheek By Jowl's Cymbeline. Picture by Richard Termine.

A second curtain rose upstage, signaling the next scene. An empty chaise, upstage right, and a trunk, upstage left, were positioned expectantly as the furtive parting scene between Imogen and Posthumous unfolded. The trunk, which would later house Iachimo, stood forebodingly between the ill-fated newlyweds. The king and courtiers intruded upon this tender farewell. Posthumous said his final words of blessing and exited. Father and daughter circled the stage like caged animals flinging angry words back and forth. This Imogen was a red-blooded blueblood: the adventurous, spirited, Englishwoman of the late 1920s, full of verve and passion. When she told her father that she was "senseless of [his] wrath" and "Past hope and in despair," she grabbed a full glass of champagne from the table and quaffed it defiantly in order to punctuate her point that she was "past grace." Cloten entered and stood frozen mutely in a fascist salute to the king as Imogen continued her rebellious rant against her father, blaming him for both her love and her desolation. It took a moment to realize that this Cloten was played by the same actor playing Posthumous. Without his spectacles and with a subtle shift in stance, the philosophical and gentle lover had morphed seamlessly into an aristocratic brat.

Figure 2.

Cloten (Tom Hiddleston) (center) with henchmen singing "Hark, hark the lark" in Cheek By Jowl's Cymbeline. Picture by Richard Termine.

The entire production was characterized by this fluid, dance-like pace, with set design, scene shifts, lighting, costumes, acting, blocking, and movement skillfully integrated to illuminate the play's exploration of the dimensions of the human psyche in all of its pettiness and grandeur. As David Bevington observes in his Introduction to the play (in Shakespeare: The Late Romances, Bantam, 1988), the evil in Cymbeline, in the form of Iachimo and the wicked Queen, is "more sinister than potent"; Iachimo is "almost at times a travesty of a tragic villain." In this production these characters approached caricature. Iachimo was a stereotypical oily Lothario, complete with exaggerated Italian accent. The wicked queen, tinkering with her poisons and potions, was a creature out of a fairy tale. But if these intentionally exaggerated performances contrasted with the realistic portrayals of Posthumous and Imogen, they also revealed what the characters share: the capacity for envy, malice, and wrath. The doubling of Cloten with Posthumous emphasized the play's meditation on the delicate balance between...