Cymbeline

Synopsis: Video recording of JoAnne Akalaitis’ production of Cymbeline for the 1989 New York Shakespeare Festival. George Bartenieff is Cymbeline and Joan Cusack is Imogen. Original music by Philip Glass.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 24 Jun 1989
Duration: 174 mins

Theatre: Public/Newman Theatre, New York, NY
Production type: Stage Recordings
Historical period: Victorian
Plays: Cymbeline
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); New York Shakespeare Festival; Shakespeare Marathon (1987-1997); Race-blind casting

Stills: The director’s conceit, as stated in the program, is to stage the play ‘in the midst of Celtic ruins - a Romantic fantasy in Victorian England.'
Reviews: Rich, Frank. New York Times (1 June 1980) p. 17. Cloten is played by a black actor. Rich writes ‘We are also supposed to believe, in a celebrated scene, that Imogen would mistake Cloten’s decapitated torso for her husband’s, yet the scene and Imogen are rendered ridiculous here by the conflicting races of the confused corpses. It’s productions like this, which practice arbitrary tokenism rather than complete and consistent integration, that mock the dignified demands of the non-traditional casting movement’.

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