A Whirligig of Elegantly Aggressive Passion

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'Cymbeline' Whirligig Productions

Whirligig Productions brings passion and action to the stage with its late August presentation of Cymbeline. Director Samantha Biatch ushers a talented, young cast through a very intricate staging of Shakespeare’s classic drama on the small stage of the Interchange Theatre. The small stage serves as a very tight home to powerful emotion, granting great immediacy to the fast-moving drama. 

Molly Kempfer is an active and passionate action hero in the role of Imogen…a young woman who loves a man her father has banished.. Kempfer does some exquisite work as a woman with impressive poise, confidence and bravery throughout the play. Imogen rarely comes across with the kind of strength and power that Kempfer lends her…both in tenderness and aggression. Theodore Olson-Johnson matches Kempfer’s heroism as Imogen’s banished love Posthumus. His performance starts soft and then grows in passion as the world disintegrates around him. It’s powerful stuff. Joshua Biatch makes for a complex and sinister villain as Iachimo, who wagers with Posthumus that he can have his way with Imogen.   Joshua Biatch also did some very impressive work as fight choreographer in a very physically dynamic production. The fight sequences come across with great intensity. 

There were some absolutely magnetic performances around the edges of the action. Alex Szabo summons some impressive gravity to the drama in the role of Pisanio. Suze Falk lends a powerfully emotive charisma to the edges of everything as Arviragus and the First Lord. Grace Berendt Is captivatingly mercurial in a few different roles…including a particularly commanding Caius Lucius. Berendt has a great gift for amplifying the tensions in a very satisfying full-length production of the classic. 

Whirligig Productions’ staging of Cymbeline runs through Aug. 27 at The Interchange Theater Co-op, 628 N. 10th Street. For more information, visit whirligig-productions.com.