Produced by ATA & Ginger Masoud
By William Shakespeare
Directed by James Jennings

 ‘CYMBELINE’.

June 9th-27th, 2009

Outdoor Theater at ATA

Starring:
Michael Bordwell, Steven Bosch, Alexis Casanovas, Ken Coughlin, Jane Culley *, Alex Dorsey, William Greville, John Paul Harkins, Jessica Jennings, Thomas Leverton, Hamilton Meadows, Leah Reddy, Bob Rosendale, Johnathan Wexler.

*Appearing Courtesy of AEA

Here’s a tale of power struggle wrapped in deceit, and served with an evil stepmother on top! But, really it’s a love story…(Desperate Housewives has nothing on this!)

Who will inherit the crown of Britain when princes are raised in a cave, and a common boy is raised at court? The trials of this royal family are magnified by the impending threat of Roman conquest. 

Cymbeline is a lesser-known play in the Shakespeare canon. It opens in the middle of all the action, or “in media res.” This literary technique is commonly used in epic poetry: the author begins with a catastrophe, which is explained as the tale unfolds. So, for those Shakespearean novices – if you feel lost in the beginning, that’s really quite okay! And as for the Bard’s savants…come out and enjoy one of the harder-to-find plays!

Historical Context:
Here’s the stuff that legends are made of! Heard of King Arthur or Snow White? Their tales may have come from various sources, but fodder for these characters are found in our play. 

‘King Cymbeline’ is a character based on ancient historical King Cunobelinus, who ruled over southeastern Britain from 10 A.D. to 41 A.D. from his capital in Colchester, then known as Camulodunum. [The pronunciation of the first seven letters of Camulodunum–Camulod–sounds not unlike the legendary name for King Arthur’s residence, Camelot.] This historical King Cunobelinus [like our ficticious ‘Cymbeline’ and the legend of ‘King Arthur’] kept Roman advancement at bay, forging treaties with Emperors Augustus Caesar and Tiberius. Then, Romans under Emperor Claudius I captured Camulodunum in 43 B.C. and ruled it as the first Roman colony in Britain. 

‘Snow White’, penned by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, found it’s inspiration in previous texts such as Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline’. Indeed, both tales may have shared roots in older stories such as Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’ of 1353, and the anonymously authored play ‘The Rare Triumphs of Love & Fortune’ performed in 1582.
We know ‘Snow White’ iconographically as a fair woman, pale white skin & ruby red lips. But, this description first belongs to ‘Imogen’ the daughter of ‘King Cymbeline’. ‘Imogen’ & ‘Snow White’ share a similar storyline: a princess who flees from the palace to the woods, supposed to be killed by a servant (or hunter), who cannot muster the immorality to do the deed – he fakes her death with the spoils of a wild animal. The princess finds refuge in a strange home of wild woodsmen, only to be rendered as good as dead by a poison which her evil stepmother concocted. By a bit of hocus pocus the princess is revived, and lives happily ever after with her one true love.