Cymbeline at the Barbican, By William Shakespeare
“The fault, dear Brutus, is in the play and not the production or the playing of it” was my thought watching this melodramatic, Japanese rendition of Shakespeare’s late romance. Shakespeare, of course, could not have known of Japanese Kabuki theatre but he could well have been commissioned to write plays for the discipline, with its dramatic and spectacular production values.
This version, part of the Shakespearean Olympiad season, put on at the Barbican theatre was directed by Yukio Ninagawa with the verve and gusto one would expect from the Japanese theatrical tradition. The staging, the music, the sound effects, the lightening flashes and the sets were all spectacular, culminating in the truly mesmeric battle scene. The balletic, slomo battle between Britons and Romans was without question the dramatic highlight of the second act.
But at over three hours this was a marathon and both the director and Shakespeare would have benefited by a bit of ruthless editing. Indeed one criticism one might have made of the production was that it was too true to the original. The complex and bewildering twists and turns of the final scene are lovingly portrayed, even though Shakespeare himself urges the players to get to the point and speed up the action.
It is, to be true, over-written. In the last “outlandish” scene alone, Cymbeline discovers his long lost sons, loses his wife both emotionally and physically, discovers the death of his stepson and re-discovers both his daughter and her husband, and still finds time to forgive the defeated Romans and yet accept Roman victory over Britain and make a just peace. Oscar Wilde may have been laughing at the death of Little Nell; he would have been uncontrollably hysterical both during this scene and when Jupiter descends rather comically on the back of an eagle.
Masanobu Katsumura plays the oafish Cloten with wit and distinction. Shinobu Otake is beguiling as Imogen though perhaps does not handle the last difficult scene with such a sure touch. Hiroshi Abe is handsome and dashing as the heroic Posthumus Leonatus. Shinobu Otake is a vain and self-regarding Iachimo. Ran Ohtori is a magnificently evil Queen and Tatsuro Sagawa a suitably pompous Cymbeline.
However, regardless of the enthusiasm of the players and the distinction of the directing, questions must still be asked about the play. The sur-titles made it intelligible as well as exciting but in the final analysis would this play with its bizarre, byzantine plot be played if it were written by anyone less distinguished than Shakespeare.
Unlike his great works Cymbeline does not speak to all ages, about universal issues, informed by real human emotions but is rather cobbled together as a late and relatively uninspired work. The writing is strained and not very poetic – it is perhaps the only Shakespearean play I have ever seen, which has not left us with a phrase or a quote that is a commonplace in everyday language.
It was great to see this Japanese production as a part of the Olympiad Shakespearean celebration but I don’t believe that I will be dashing off to see an English version just to see what Shakespeare had really intended.
* Tony Belton & Penny Corfield discuss shows that they see together and take it in turns to write reviews.
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 