Photo Credit: Maria Pretzl
Rather than yet another adaptation of Hamlet, the acting students of Peck School of the Arts chose a lesser-known Shakespearean play to present to the public. Cymbeline tells the story of princess Imogen (Olivia Cranston), who chose to elope with Posthumous (Devin George) rather than follow queen Cymbeline’s (Beatrice Kuenn) wish that she marry her stepbrother Cloten (Cory Fitzsimmons). Cloten and his father, the Duke (Austin Lepper), are plotting against the queen, while the country has to face the prospect of war against Rome.
This adaptation is modern and brazen, with all the characters wearing clothes that seem out of place for a period piece. Lords and ladies are dressed in leather, jeans jackets, crop tops and converse shoes; Queen Cymbeline is even rocking fishnet tights. Discarding the stiff Shakespearean monologues, the adaptation is physical and the actors constantly move their entire bodies, gesture wildly and run all over the stage. However, the dialogue remains outdated, which can make it hard to follow the (convoluted) plot, especially since there is nothing but a short scene to introduce the 20 characters of the play.
The acting is sometimes unequal, as can be expected of students—some of which are performing for the first time at UW-Milwaukee—but the play remains enjoyable and entertaining until the end. Acting highlights include Posthumous and Iachimo, the Italian fiend played by Baltimore Krahn. Caius Lucius (Silken Amelia) is also delightful as a Roman diplomat.
The original Cymbeline is a play about truth and appearances, where nothing is as it seems. Director Rebecca Holderness strengthened the theme further by adding gender to the mix. Many male characters, including king Cymbeline himself, have changed genders in this version. “We think of the play as a genderfluid world,” Holderness explains. “We took the positions of power and put them into the hands of women. We also took the leader of Rome and made that person a woman as well.” Other roles, like the fiend Iachimo, remain male. “While the women are busy trying to keep the country together, the men are betting,” Holderness adds.
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To further explore this genderfluid world, many characters’ genders are not as they seem, the cast list even shows characters’ pronouns. Polydore, Cymbeline’s lost son, is played by a woman, Aly Robinson, but is called brother or sister depending on who is addressing him—his pronouns are listed as she/him/hers. Two other characters, Cloten’s Lords, are also queer: one is clearly gay while the other’s pronouns are they/theirs. Therefore, when princess Imogen disguises herself as a boy, it makes it easy to accept that she can change her apparent gender by merely changing clothes.
