Cymbeline: The Chronicles of Awesome.

Barrow Street Theatre - NYC

December 18, 2011

Brad - A

Chelsea - A

The Eye-Talians!

After awaking from a nice 3 hour nap --- also known as Richard II --- Chelsea and I headed back to Greenwich village for play 4 of 4 on the weekend. After circling the same block 3 times (sad but true), we stopped in for some delicious Bleecker Street Pizza. The pizza confused Chelsea; I am not sure why.

So, Cymbeline started at 7:30 PM on Sunday night. We were exhausted, but the wait was well worth it.

In this play, Imogen, King Cymbeline's daughter, and Posthumus get married secretly. Because Posthumus is not royalty, the King banishes him to Italy. Instead, the King tries to set up Imogen with her step-brother. While in Italy (pronounced IT-lee), Posthumus bets Iachimo, a dirty Italian, that he could never seduce Imogen. Long story short, Iachimo fails to seduce Imogen, but he sneaks into her room while she is asleep and ... umm ... gathers sufficient intimate information to convince Posthumus that he indeed succeeded with her. Under the influence of this lie, Posthumus sends a letter to Imogen asking her to meet him at a remote village in England; he also sends a letter to his close friend, Imogen's servant, instructing him to kill her at said remote village. The servant takes her to the village, tells her about the letter, and then leaves her. She immediately cross dresses and pledges to travel to Italy to find Posthumus. Along the way she wanders into a cave --- again, dressed as a man --- and finds a woods-woman and her two sons. Still dressed like a man, Imogen joins the ranks of the Roman army on its way to invade England because the King refused to pay Rome its rent. Battle ensues, the woods-people save the day, Imogen and Posthumus are reunited, and Iachimo admits he lied. The King allows Imogen and Posthumus to marry and those woods-people end up being the King's long lost sons. It's kinda like the ending of a very long Scooby Doo episode.

Crazy, I know. But this production was amazing. The entire cast consisted of six actors. All of the actors, except for Imogen, played multiple roles. But it was done so well, there was no confusion. In fact, in the last scene, the same actor had to play multiple roles in the same scene. It was hilarious to see characters that conflicted with each other played by the same actor. It sounds cheesy, but the cast pulled it off seamlessly. Also, the play was filled with fantastic music. It was folksy, blue-grass hipster music --- think Avett Brothers in skinny jeans. Each actor had a great voice. Every choice this cast/director made worked. It was a great end to the weekend of Shakespeare.

This video gives you a taste of the music and minimalist nature of this production.  Check out the music at about the 1:15 mark. Awesome.

The play ended. We took the train to the car. On our walk to the hotel we noticed this half-completed building was all lit up.

It took me a minute (because I am slow), but then I realized this is going to be the Freedom Tower --- the building built on the site of the Twin towers. Even half-completed, it promises to stand out in the cluttered Wall Street skyline.

We hopped in the car at 10:45, I dropped off Chelsea at 2:30, and I fell asleep at 3:00. I was at work the next morning right on time -- an improbable, but successful weekend trip. After one month, we are now 6/37ths the way through the Shakespeare Cannon. The rest is downhill...

-- Brad-humus