The Two Noble Kinsmen by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (review)

With its 2014 production of The Two Noble Kinsmen, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company became one of five American theaters to complete a 38-play canon. Set in ancient Athens with modest costumes and set, this production focused on complicated personal relationships. It foregrounded strong women and presented a group of likeable characters’ comical and devastating attempts to find love.

The production began not with the text’s prologue but with a radiant Emilia scattering rose petals and singing about virginity at her sister’s wedding. Theseus and Hippolyta held hands and exchanged loving looks, and with no others present but Prithius (as the name was spelled by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company), the moment seemed intimate and without pomp. It highlighted Emilia’s single state and the widowed queens’ amplified role. The latter entered wearing black shawls and with thick mascara streaks from their eyes to their jaws—a striking contrast to the other characters, who wore light, airy togas. Moving together across the stage, they forced Theseus into a corner, and later they controlled the fates of Palamon and Arcite. During the battle in act one, they stood on a raised platform upstage and directed the action with sweeping gestures. As the battle drew to a close, they painted Palamon and Arcite’s faces with blood. Meanwhile, the actresses playing Emilia and Hippolyta donned armor and marched in the battle, an action that alluded to their Amazonian past. Surrounded and led by these powerful women, Theseus appeared neither harsh nor unwavering, but simply one of many characters trying to navigate a perplexing world.

Although we first met Palamon and Arcite in a bathhouse wearing only towels, their interactions exhibited little of the homoeroticism hinted at in the playtext. They stood apart while lamenting their fate in prison, imbued their lines with irony, and embraced only with the occasional one-armed hug or manly hand clasp. Because the production omitted their most suggestive language, such as Arcite’s line, “We are one another’s wife” (2.2.80), they seemed comforted more by escaping Creon than by each other. Yet the production represented other same-sex encounters as erotically charged. Prithius demonstrated his love for Theseus with devoted looks and strong embraces. The effeminate First Countryman screwed up his face in disgust when mentioning his wife and gaped at Arcite while talking heatedly about his body. Emilia and her maid shared the most erotic moment. The maid stroked Emilia’s hand as she said, “I could lie down, I am sure” (2.2.152). Emilia gently placed a flower between her breasts, and they eagerly ran off together. Emilia had earlier spoken of Flavinia with similar playfulness and joy.

The actors playing Palamon and Arcite worked to distinguish them from one another. Both fell for Emilia with the same dumbstruck expression and afterwards spoke with exaggerated anger that made many lines comic, such as Arcite’s “You are mad” and Palamon’s absurdly defiant “I must be” (2.2.204). But Palamon especially appeared as a petulant boy as he whined and flailed his arms, and Emilia preferred Arcite. She flirted at their initial meeting and watched him with bemusement and intrigue. She did not display the same interest in Palamon. When Palamon burst into the scene and declared his love, Theseus turned to Emilia quizzically, and she shook her head, indicating that she did not know him and was puzzled by his behavior. The omission of Emilia’s speech about her slight...