‘Tis but a dream, or else such stuff as madmen tongue and brain not…

‘Cymbeline’ is one of Shakespeare’s later ‘romances’ and it was written to celebrate the recent unification of ‘Britain’ by the accession of King James 1 of England and VI of Scotland. It recalls another ‘Britain’ prior to the Roman conquest as imagined and described in the works of Holinshed and Geoffrey of Monmouth. Like many of the romance plays, it has a fairytale quality and contains some beautiful language.

By combining ancient Britain, classical Rome, Jacobean England and Renaissance Italy, Shakespeare creates a self sufficient dramatic world which is at once mythical and recognisable. This interesting and anomalous mix has encouraged us to create our own occasional, more contemporary references.

Like the other romance plays, ‘Cymbeline’ had the advantage of being written for indoor performance. In 1608 the King’s Men had finally acquired the use of the Blackfriars Theatre which James Burbage had bought and converted for them twelve years before. They apparently continued to use ‘The Globe’ for summer performances but were able to move into the indoor theatre during the winter months. This venue gave Shakespeare an opportunity to develop his style and to include such new stage techniques as musical masques and more unusual technical effects.

This has always been one of my favourite plays combining, as it does, many elements of the great tragedies with a keen sense of humour. I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to direct it for the Trust and sincerely hope that our interpretation will please.

This will be the first time that ‘Cymbeline’ has been presented at ‘The George’. It is a very challenging play but, well-staged, it can hold an audience enthralled. Sometimes regarded as Shakespeare’s most ‘avant-garde work’, it is coloured with a romantic simplicity and with that strangely touching late-Shakespearean tenderness for a
thing ‘long lost and beautifully recovered’.