Cymbeline

If Romeo and Juliet is a comedy gone wrong, perhaps Cymbeline is a tragedy gone right.

As dizzyingly eventful a drama as Shakespeare ever conceived, Cymbeline tells of a beautiful princess separated from her beloved, the cruel step-mother who tries to foil her, a credulous husband duped by an adversary, an exiled nobleman who kidnaps a king’s sons and a Roman invasion of Britain. All that and more is neatly tucked into a lightning-paced, streamlined production in which six versatile actors play 14 roles. A plain white cloth becomes a sail, a bed sheet and a toga. A trunk becomes a ship. And all the while, these magical theatrical transformations playfully deepen the drama’s signature themes of error, deception and redemption.