Bear & Company’s Cymbeline in the park is an hilarious, fully enjoyable show for a nice summer night
While Shakespeare’s company probably never performed his plays in a park, Jacobean theatres were open-air, lit only by sunlight, and had no fancy lighting, sound, and set designs like modern theatre. Bear and Company’s performance of Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare’s later plays, does a lot to recreate that original Jacobean feel by staging an open-air show in various parks across the city. .
Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s crazier plays, with a convoluted plot that’s hard to follow, and hard to believe could ever happen in real life. The plot is a grab-bag of earlier Shakespeare tropes. Kooky king a la King Lear? Check. Star-crossed lovers? Of course. Running off into the forest disguised as a boy? Yep. A conniving queen? Uh-huh. A lecherous womanizer? Certainly. The Roman army invades and are defeated a scene later. The plot is so absurd, in fact, that Cymbeline fell out of favour for centuries, and many critics still think that Shakespeare had just gotten bored. It is one of his final plays, after all.
But the silliness of the plot lends itself well to Bear and Co., a troupe who seem perfectly tailored to staging funny Renaissance plays. The play only had six actors, with the main characters, Imogen and her lower-class lover Posthumous Leonatus, played by one actor each, and the other four actors covering as many as six characters each. The doubling adds to the confusion at first, but also to the comedy; so too does the pared-down set. This isn’t supposed to be a serious play, and performing it with minimal props in a park puts some limitations on the play that add to the hilarity. For instance, when a headless corpse is required—yes, a lot goes on in this play—they use a dummy made from a pillow with pool noodles for legs. It’s crude, sure, but hilarious, and suits the silliness of the play. The same goes for the giant teddy bear that represents the kill the hunters make. The hunter Arviragus is almost caveman-like, with shaggy hair, a gruff and boastful attitude, and a fur vest, but it’s impossible not to laugh as he carries an oversized teddy bear on his shoulder like a freshly killed deer.
Cymbeline is already a flurry of characters, but Bear and Co. make it work, with actors often getting off-stage just to turn back around as a completely different character. The scene changes are rapid too, with no pauses in between. Sometimes the characters from the previous scene aren’t even off the stage yet when the next scene starts. It’s a whirlwind, but it adds to the non-serious nature of the play. Shakespeare couldn’t have written a plot like this one and been serious about it, and the speedy scene and character changes make it even more comedic. At a few points, stage-hands must be present just to help switch scenes, and instead of staying quiet, they wave their arms around and hush us as if to distract the crowd from what they’re doing. You wouldn’t see it in serious drama, but it makes this Cymbeline in the park even more enjoyable.
The acting was good, delivered at a fine volume (there were no mics) and with surprisingly few flubs, given that actors were memorizing far more lines than just one character. The comedy between the lines was also spot-on, with Cloten and Iochimo’s sexual bravado shown off particularly well. The only shortcomings in the acting were in the more serious scenes. While the comedy was done well, the dramatic bits could have been stronger.
Having seen the park version, I can’t even imagine seeing Cymbeline presented on an actual stage. The pared-down, outdoors setting suits it well, and the character doubling—or quadrupling—and simple props help make the show the farce Shakespeare surely intended it to be.
Bear and Company’s Cymbeline is being presented at parks throughout the city until August 5. The schedule can be found on Bear and Co.’s website.