Soka University – Shakespeare by the Sea presents Cymbeline Wednesday August 10, 2016

Who doesn’t love a good Shakespeare?! We all know Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, but have you heard of Cymbeline? The members of Shakespeare by the Sea sure have.

One of Shakespeare’s later works, the play is nothing short of convoluted. Many subplots weave themselves into a brightly colored tapestry that leave many scholars scratching their heads. Many think that Shakespeare was bored with himself and just wanted to see what he could get away with (Act five, Scene four “Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle”).  People don’t know what to do with Cymbeline: is it a Tragedy? Comedy? Romance? Who’s to say, it’s got a little of each. The cutting I watched last month focused less on Polytheism and more on the relationships of the characters.

In short, Cymbeline is about war, deception, and loyalty. Our cast of characters include a disgruntled King (Cymbeline), an even more disgruntled exiled ex-soldier, two lovers, a devoted servant, a self-entitled prince, two princes that don’t know they’re princes, a cunning stepmother, an Italian thief, and a Roman battalion. Did I mention that this takes place in Britain during the Roman empire? I’m not going to summarize the whole play for you, even though I did take a comprehension quiz on Spark notes and got a hundred percent and am pretty confident in my knowledge of this play, but, I will explain the main conflict:

Cymbeline is the king of Old Britain. His sons are kidnapped by Belarus, the disgruntled gentleman mentioned earlier, out of spite for being banished for being wrongly accused of being a Roman traitor. No sons, no heir to the throne. Cymbeline does have a daughter though, who instead of marrying her step brother Cloten (who’s a real winner), marries an orphaned, working class man named Posthumus. Posthumus is banished, chaos ensues. While all of this is happening, Cymbeline is single-handedly taking on the Roman empire.

As I said before, Cymbeline can be a little hard to follow. For example, the cutting used in this production took out basically all of the scenes between Cymbeline and a Roman ambassador. These changes allow one to focus more on the stories including and surrounding Imogen and Posthumus, our two lovers. Coming in with no prior knowledge of this show it was no trouble at all to follow along with the story. I had a basic understanding of what was going on which is arguably all you need for Shakespeare. When you have that you can enjoy other the aspects to their fullest. I loved all the characters and performances. I highly recommend checking Cymbeline out as a read or a live production!

Shakespeare by The Sea, started in 1998 by Lisa Coffi, is a non-profit organization that “partners with local city organizations, enabling [them] to offer performances for free.” Actors sign on to perform in one, or both, of two different Shakespeare productions for ten weeks from San Pedro to The Bay Area. Each production is free admission and open to all ages. If you wish to make a donation it is greatly appreciated and well deserved from all the artists hard work. More about their amazing program and others can be found on their website:

http://www.shakespearebythesea.org/wp/about-us/.

Brigitte Rose

Entertainment Editor

Aliso Laguna News/ Green Local News