Synopsis | Cymbeline | Royal Shakespeare Company

Director Melly Still explains the story of Shakespeare's Cymbeline.
Cymbeline played in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until October 2016, then it transferred to the Barbican, London.
www.rsc.org.uk/cymbeline

[@rebrebekah]

Melly Still is actually explaining the RSC's version of the original play. To anyone researching Cymbeline for the first time, please be aware that Shakespeare's Cymbeline is the king, his wife, the Queen, is the villain, and both Cymbeline's long lost children are male! :-)

[@meah1647]

I don’t care what anyone says, this is one of my favorite plays

[@bellringer929]

Shakespeare is the master of making improbable still look more improbable and force us to love its poetry nonetheless

[@michaelmcgowan4109]

Wow! that was a mouth full!

[@onesagotoomany]

One of the simpler Shakespearean plots :) Another production I'm really looking forward too. The casting and staging looks wonderful, even from these static images.

[@eddiedante2028]

Ok I'll😊lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

[@nimium1955]

O:29 Cloten is the homuncular son ("too bad for bad report") of the scheming queen. Why did RSC screw around with the relationships? What was the point? What does that bring to the play?

[@antonellacinefila4973]

Seeing this video makes even harder to wait until September to see Cymbeline and King Lear!

[@isabelroy2933]

SAME

[@noabaak]

Best summary.

[@chrissystewart4123]

I'm into Shakespeare My goal is to study his plays I never saw Cymbeline before so I need to study Shakespeare

[@wandamanley7401]

my theories on this will never be realised..good.

[@Fuliginosus]

So basically boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.

[@nimium1955]

Yeah. Shakespeare typically indulges his neurotic preoccupation with legitimacy, succession, and what we know as "the orderly transfer of power." but doesn't let it get in the way of a good story.

[@Salamon2]

Add in that the boy and girl grow up and learn to have a more complex and adult view of the world, rather than the simple black and white view of the world that they start out with... and the wicked stepmother is a fairy tale trope that's likely played up for intentional camp reasons, because the evil stepmother isn't even being subtle. Like, think Chita Rivera in the 1982 video recording of the musical of Pippin as Fastrada--i.e. knowingly playing up. The play is full of side-eyeing and breaks of the fourth wall as it is in certain respects.

[@simonratcliffe2765]

Plus the Iachimo plot, Belarius and the story of the lost children, Cloten’s pursuit, the wars and the peace.

[@agenttheater5]

I am so annoyed with myself that I wasn't able to see this! Why is there always something good on at a time when you just can't drop everything to see a play!

[@Doubledig]

Available on DVD!

[@RKDTOO]

So is it Imogene or Innogene?

[@rebrebekah]

Innogen or Imogen...as in both are correct?

[@RKDTOO]

@@rebrebekah 🤣

[@rebrebekah]

@@RKDTOO Sorry, my initial reply didn't make sense :-D

[@rebrebekah]

@@RKDTOO Sorry...my initial reply didn't make sense :-)

[@naly202]

Brother and sister?? The ones in the woods were both men.

[@papagen00]

What a massively convoluted ridiculous farcical plot. Only Shakespeare could pull it off.

[@yussepig6629]

Why call it Cymbeline if he’s almost irrelevant to the story? Not one of his best anyway….

[@michaelnixon525]

More crap from the R.S.C. It's not Cloten - it's Clooooten - long O. And it's not Posthumus - the accent is on the first rather than the second syllable. Where do they got these people from to direct these plays ? .

[@maxthomas6882]

It's very difficult for us to say for sure; but, as it happens, the metre gives a pretty good indication that the 2nd syll. of Posthumus was accented (see, for eg, 3.4.61, 4.2.307, 5.4.38). Likewise, there's a good chance Cloten was pronounced with a short 'o' in order to match 'clotpoll': see 4.2.183. Hope that helps clear up the confusion!