CYMBELINE
by William Shakespeare
Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October 2009
Mary Wallace Theatre
The world of Cymbeline is that of fairy-tale, ancient legend, and love tested almost to breaking-point. Cymbeline, King of Britain, furious that his daughter Imogen should have married against his wishes, banishes his new son-in-law. In exile in Italy, this vulnerable husband makes a foolish wager on the fidelity of his far-distant wife. What follows is a gripping and moving tale of temptation, deceit, forgiveness and reconciliation, set against a backdrop of war between Britain and Rome, and written in Shakespeare's late style - that is, highly charged and compressed verse, shot-through with dazzling images and haunting poetry. The supernatural plays an important part, as does the horrific and the barely [but entertainingly] credible!