RSC Live: Cymbeline ★★★

RSC Live: Cymbeline

Cineworld

Wednesday 28th September

Having just returned from three months volunteering abroad in South Africa for an Educational charity, one of the things I missed the most was theatre, and the sense of watching a live performance, so when I found out that a live performance of Cymbeline was being broadcasted in Cineworld, I bought a ticket straight away, and I have no regrets doing so, because the production itself was edgy, with relentless face paced energy from start to finish!

What I really enjoyed about this production was how easy I found listening to the text - It was hard at first, but once you get over the initial struggle of the language that Shakespeare so beautiful wrote, I found myself ease into the story, which was also helped I must say through the subtitles on the walls at the back, when characters like Iachimo (Oliver Johnstone) spoke in Italian with some of the other cast members, but also the imagery that was thrown into this production, with video clips of Cymbeline’s missing children was shown throughout the production.

The acting in this production was phenomenal I thought, especially from Bethan Cullinane taking on the role of Innogen, Cymbeline’s daughter, but also Gillian Bevan, portraying Cymbeline. There was so much realism to their performances, almost forgetting that they were actors themselves, especially when you look into the range of emotions that they both go through as characters, it really takes incredible talent and research I presume to put in performances like these two do on stage every night!

Overall, Cymbeline is a production filled with music, laughs, attempted murder, with also a sense of farce, especially with the last scene where everything unravels, and in this RSC production, you really need to witness this scene to just understand how amazing this story really is, but also how incredibly well the whole cast and crew have worked to put this production on stage!