Cymbeline by Fiasco, which was not a fiasco

Last Saturday, Jill and I saw Shakespeare’s Cymbeline performed by the Fiasco Theater troupe at Duke. It was perhaps the most wonderful evening that I have ever spent at the theater. There was a touch of magic on the stage that evening, and we were both enchanted. The play seemed to last no more than a few minutes, as we were completely engrossed, and we were sad to see it end. The performance was simply marvelous – the acting was very good, but not overdone, and the set, costumes, props, special effects, and music seemed perfect. There were only six actors, and four of them played several characters. The roles of the king (Cymbeline) and the physician (Cornelius) were played by the same actor, and both of these characters are on stage at the same time in the final scene. I wondered whether the actor would step off-stage for a moment to change costumes, but no – while acting as the king, he simply drew from his coat pocket a pair of spectacles that he wore earlier when playing the physician, placed them on his face while shooting a bemused look at the audience, and began acting as the physician. I was especially impressed by this actor, who also played the role of Clotus. There were a few bluegrass numbers, which were quite enjoyable, and one of the actors played some beautiful notes on a cello off-stage at the end of a few scenes, to good effect. A trunk was the central prop – it was at one point a ship, at another point a pool table, but it also served as the entrance to a cave, the back of a royal throne, cover in battle, and, of course, it served as a trunk. The sword play was well done; I worried that the actors might accidentally injure one another, so animated was the fighting. It is impossible to recreate the performance here in words, but perhaps I have conveyed something of its quality. I wish it were possible to view such productions regularly. The last good production of Shakespeare I saw was a staging of Love’s Labour's Lost at Yale. It was quite good, and some aspects of that production reminded me of the Fiasco Theater’s Cymbeline. I am going to look for a video recording of the performance. I hope that Jill and I will be able to see more performances by the Fiasco Theater in the future. They are a fine company of actors. Before closing, I should add that Cymbeline is a great play. It is quite funny, as a comedy should be, and it contains some important observations about human nature. I won’t go into any details here, but I will say that I was struck by the similarity of the (very bad) reactions of Posthumous and Cloten – who seem in all respects very different persons – to being rejected, or apparently rejected, by Imogen. I found the similarity of their reactions credible, and I think that it hints at some profound truths about the nature of virtuous and vicious characters and the relation of these to virtuous and vicious actions.