Midwestern Troupe takes engaging swing at Shakespeare's drama of royal intrigue
By MICHAEL SMITH World Entertainment Writer 12/9/00
Joseph Gomez and Lauren Brown, with Sara Cruncleton lurking in the shadows. KELLY KERR / Tulsa World
"CYMBELINE," Shakespeare's dramatic take on a scheming royal court of Britain in the 1600s, is a sprawling tale of romance, deception and fallabilities, and in the hands of the Midwestern Theater Troupe, it is both a fabulous and flawed epic.
The play is also epic in its length -- 3 hours, 20 minutes -- so be prepared for a full night of entertainment and to give the baby-sitter a little something extra.
Director John Cruncleton's vision of the play makes for an outstanding visual experience, providing many beautiful people with brilliant all-white costumes -- designed in many styles and fabrics by Sara Cruncleton -- and a set design that is simple, yet elegant, in its creation.
It's a shame that only 11 people bothered to come out for opening night Thursday, but perhaps that's one night more to hammer out the kinks in a few performances in a work that was sometimes thrilling, sometimes slow-moving, but always engaging.
The running time, the Elizabethan linguistics, the relative anonymity among Shakespeare's works -- all are barriers that guarantee the show isn't going to put butts in the seats the way other local companies can when they stage the umpteenth rendition of a musical by somebody famous and somebody else famous.
But Midwestern relishes a challenge, and they knew what they were doing in selecting this overlooked gem.
Cymbeline (played by Robert Frayser) is the King of Britain, and by his side is the Queen (Sara Cruncleton), a wicked stepmother to Imogen, the king's daughter by a previous marriage. The Queen also has a son by a previous marriage, Cloten (Dale Sams), and she dreams and schemes to wed him off to Imogen and secure an even firmer grasp on the throne and her legacy.
But Imogen (Lauren Brown) has secretly married a commoner, the bright and brave Posthumus (Joseph Gomez), who is banished from Britain by Cymbeline after he learns of the pair's elopement.
He chooses Italy for his exile, and this nobleman soon finds trouble in the form of a traveling companion who grows weary of Posthumus singing Imogen's virtues.
Iachimo (John Cruncleton) boldly boasts -- and wagers -- that he can seduce Imogen. Posthumus accepts the challenge, but Iachimo is a man willing to do anything to prevail in this bet. Imogen quickly spurns the cad upon his arrival in Britain, but he gains entry to her bedchamber and steals enough false evidence -- a bracelet he slips off the sleeping beauty, a good look at a tiny mole on her chest -- to convince Posthumus that his bride has made him a cuckold.
What follows is a huge tale of love lost and rediscovered, deception, mistaken identities and redeemed honor. The action takes us from Britain to Wales and to Rome. Imogen leaves home to search for Posthumus, having no clue that he believes her a tramp and has commissioned her death. During her journey, she is welcomed into the dwelling of a man and his two sons -- not knowing they are actually her long-ago-kidnapped brothers. Imogen finds a headless man and wrongly believes it to be Posthumus. She drinks a concoction that knocks her into a deep slumber, but her new friends believe her to be dead.
And on and on this tale gloriously winds and curves, until lots of loose ends are happily tied up in the finale. You'll see most of them coming from far away, but we'll keep them secreted away for now.
"Cymbeline" is more a giddy celebration of humanity than a cautionary tale of redemption, and it does a nice job of poking fun at our expectations of personal appearance. There's little question that, ultimately, we're meant to join in the fun and laugh at ourselves and our foibles a little.
The beautiful costumes and creative set, with grand columns that one wouldn't guess were constructed of cardboard, make for stylish production values. Incidental music by a string trio makes for smooth, tranquil transitions between scenes. A great interruption occurs during a battle scene involving two huge puppets.
Sara Cruncleton and Sams, two of the founding members of Midwestern, seem to know it's always more fun to play the villain, and they're both delicious in their horrid mother-and-son dynamic; Cruncleton voraciously chews up scenery and spits it back out, while Sams gives a slyly comic turn. Gomez and George Nelson, in a small role as the forthright physician to the king's family, are also standouts, and Kay Stephens and Jenny Jackson are constantly fun as the court harlequins.
The same cannot be said of some other individuals, who could do with stepping back a bit, retreating from the school of read-the-line-and-emote- like-crazy and trying to enunciate. There were others more embarrassing than Brown in her oh-so-vital role, but she remarkably was able to often overact and, at the same time, not be heard clearly.
In the end, though, there's plenty to recommend this show. Hopefully more than 11 people a night will attend for the rest of the run and leave with a smile on their face and their backsides sore.
"CYMBELINE" continues with performances set for 8 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Dec. 14-16 and 7 p.m. Dec. 17. Tickets are $8, with discounts available, and reservations may be made by calling 583-8487 [As of February 2007, 633-8666].
Michael Smith, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8474 or via e-mail at michael.smith@tulsaworld.com.