Director Erica Whyman transforms Shakespeare's emotionally charged play into a dystopian drama filled with The Handmaid's Tale-like horrors.
The Winter's Tale
Theater
royal shakespeare company presents
Cymbeline
Theater188 min2017PG
Britain is in crisis. Alienated, insular and on the brink of disaster. Can it be saved? An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline’s judgement is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and in an act of impulsive jealousy begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a long-lost heir and reconcile the young lovers.
Why Watch This
“In a widely praised conceptual choice, the traditional King Cymbeline becomes a powerful Queen, played with commanding authority by Gillian Bevan, completely reconfiguring the familial and political dynamics of the play. Director Melly Still relocates the action to a gritty, near-future Britain filled with urban wear and graffiti, contrasted with a clean, heavily policed Roman Empire, a visual divide that breathes fresh political urgency into the ancient story.”
— Marquee TV Content Curator