CYMBELINE. To 3 February.

London

CYMBELINE
inspired by William Shakespeare adapted by Emma Rice written by Carl Grose

Lyric Theatre Hammersmith To 3 February 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 31 Jan 1.30pm 3 Feb 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS: 08700 500511
www.lyric.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 January

Theatrical bravura enhances the play.
This was Kneehigh’s contribution to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘Complete Works’ festival, which is intriguing as it’s almost completely not by Shakespeare. The story was never his in the first place, while Kneehigh use few of his words, and not all those in the right order. As always in ‘Shakespeare’ without the language, the replacement can sound thin in comparison. So, Stratford or not, there’d better be some good reason for doing it.

Kneehigh’s good reason is that they release the human within the rambling myth. They do this, not by avoiding or stripping down (modern theatre’s usual method), but by boldly embracing a range of experience. Theatrically, this includes the tall, metallic cage which reflects the idea of imprisonment and freedom in the story, the heartily folk-like music which underscores the emotional impact of situations, and the apparently reckless flinging together of times and styles.

So the story’s summarised by an otherwise uninvolved modern member of the blue-rinse brigade back from the Costa Del Sol. Her function in clarifying events, while pointing up how complicated they are, goes with a breeziness that points up by contrast the emotions of Shakespeare’s characters.

Kneehigh’s Shakespearean span also imbues the drama. It’s in the mixed vulnerability and resilience of Hayley Carmichael’s Imogen, Amanda Lawrence’s wicked Queen, with her strong physical movement, or Mike Shepherd’s suited, puff-chested tyrant-king Cymbeline. Physicality also gives point and vivacity to the treacherous Iachimo, as it does to so much else.

And this breadth of style accommodates anything that might seem purely silly in the play (how can you not accept anything in a show which has a radio-controlled model car speeding around the stage at journeying times?) It also stores up important points. Cymbeline may be suited when he comes to roar at his daughter and her suitors. But inside the cage he’s often seen half-undressed, jabbed with a syringe. The reason’s eventually apparent and unlocks the centre of the power-struggle which, being visualised this way, seems more convincing than in the script.

Though the words aren’t there, the spirit of the play’s alive and kicking.

Imogen: Hayley Carmichael
Posthumus: Carl Grose
Cloten: Craig Johnson
Brother: Dominic Lawton
Iachimo: Robert Luckay
Queen: Amanda Lawrence
Cymbeline: Mike Shepherd
Pisanio: Kirsty Woodward
Caesar (voice of): Marcello Magni

Director: Emma Rice
Designer: Michael Vale
Lighting: Malcolm Rippeth
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Composer/Musical Director: Stu Barker
Cornish Clog Dance Trainer: Karen Lockley-Brown
Assistant director: Simon Harvey

2007-01-27 11:44:33