Cymbeline

Lincoln Center Theater

On Wednesday I endured just over three hours of one of Shakespeare's least famous plays (not very famous for a pretty good reason, as it turned out).

What was walk-outable turned into endurable with the entrance of Jonathan Cake in what I think may have been a Roman bath scene. Cake was actually acting the play rather than attempting to do Shakespeare like so many of the other actors. It was surprising because the cast was first-rate in name, but few of them should keep this one on their resume simply because they didn't meet the challenge. A few of the actors have gotten very good press in other things and I was really looking forward to seeing them here (Martha Plimpton and Michael Cerveris especially).

Cymbeline was at best very uneven. Great actors doing a miserable job with a few exceptions--I think we can lay that at the feet of the director. I don't know where else to put it. When Cake wasn't on stage the play felt endless. It was very difficult to understand about 40% of what was said. Intermission was used to figure out plot points with a friend, and essentially answer, "What the hell just happened there?"

Pre-intermission was surprisingly stronger than post-intermission largely due to Cake. Opening up after intermission three new actors did very, very well--they were two brothers with a father who had kidnapped them. They were all very good. Then, we got a very long monologue by Plimpton which was almost impossible to understand and ever less possible to care about. At the very end we got an endless 'reveal-all' which must have been repeated three different times in three different ways. At 11 p.m. it was painful and it's too bad they couldn't have just lopped that off.

The sets and costumes were quite nice, but they can't save a production which was poor on so many levels. One of two things happened, some actors were too good to show up for rehearsals and this was actually reasonably well directed or some actors practiced in their spare time and made it happen in spite of the production., I don't know which is the correct answer, but skip it unless you are really into obscure Shakespeare or have a great desire to see Jonathan Cake which almost makes the performance worth it and would have if he'd just had more stage time.

But, it was one of eight open during the strike...but, now the strike is over. So, you have more choice. Great!