Summary 
Bravura production of the romantic adventure expertly blends comedy with tragedy via an engaging ensemble of twelve playing upon a sparsely set stage. Tongue firmly in cheek, the production teems with poison, lost princes, a damsel in disguise, a looming war, and a comical quasi-villain, and is filled with live rock-and-roll from the Beatles and the Stones to Warren Zevon, Radiohead, and Foreigner.
Design
Directed by Jim Warren. Costume design by Victoria Depew. Fight Direction by Benjamin Curns.
Cast
James Keegan (Cymbeline), Abbi Hawk (Imogen), Tracy Hostmyer (Queen/ Philarmonus), John Harrell (Cloten), Grant Davis (Posthumus), Allison Glenzer (Pisanio), Ronald Peet (Philario/Guiderius), Benjamin Curns (Iachimo), Rene Thornton, Jr. (Belarius/ Jupiter), Chris Johnston (Arviragus), Tracie Thomason (Cornelius), Gregory Jon Phelps (Caius Lucius).
Analysis
Director Jim Warren begins this cinema adventure-style Cymbeline at American Shakespeare Center with his cast delivering a barbershop-quartet version of "Afternoon Delight" - "skyrockets in flight!" - then a harmonica-fueled rendition of The Rolling Stones' "Love is Strong" - "I followed you through swirling seas, down darkened woods with silent trees" - both entertaining and contemporary insights into the loving relationship between Imogen and Posthumus in the play. Warren begins with a lighthearted introduction featuring John Harrell, who plays Cloten, and the gregarious hostess Allison Glenzer - greeting arriving patrons, selling raffle tickets, inviting people onstage to purchase a refreshment - who plays Pisanio. They banter about the seldom-produced Cymbeline and its fine line between comedy and tragedy, Harrell spiraling comically off to introduce the "tedious and incomprehensible" tale, and welcoming the audience with a droll, "ladies and gentlemen, endure the show." After he questions Glenzer about the style of the production - is it a Western? soft-core porn? - he lies on his back and sings, thrusting his hips as Glenzer gamely describes the conventions of Romantic drama. Then, after the cast tunefully delivers one last introductory song, Warren Zevon's "Keep Me in Your Heart for a While" ballad - "if I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less" - two citizens enter upstage 1.1 to discuss King Cymbeline and his daughter Imogen.
Tracy Hostmyer's Queen is a fairy-tale evil witch, shamelessly groping Posthumus 1.2, flirting with an audience member seated onstage 1.6, then deceiving Pisanio with the box of poison from Cornelius. Hostmyer's Queen represents the first of many obstacles for Imogen and Posthumus, who embrace and trade favors, she a ring and he bracelet he calls a "manacle of love." Grant Davis plays Posthumus like a romantic teen-idol, all tragic circumstance and boyish good looks, enduring a disdainful shove from the King himself 1.2 then banishment 1.5 in a tavern in Italy, clinking tankards and playing frat-boy chugging drinking games. He attempts to resist the insidious Iachimo - "I do nothing doubt you have store of thieves" - but makes a wager on the fidelity of Imogen, showing Iachimo his prized ring 2.4 in a humorously rude one-fingered salute. When convinced of his loss and Imogen's supposed treachery, he prowls downstage, exclaiming to the audience, pointing out seated women he accuses as flatterers and deceivers.
Abbi Hawk's movie-star Imogen is a raven-haired beauty with a commanding sense of nobility and honor. She wears dangling ear rings 1.7 and welcomes her husband's friend Iachimo with such a warm embrace that Iachimo almost immediately begins to fall into weak-kneed love for her. When he weaves his web of lies about Posthumus - "I never saw him sad" - and strokes her cheek to encourage her to sleep with him ("revenge it"), she cries out for help and shoves Iachimo away. Hawk's Imogen then assumes control, strutting at Iachimo as he backs away and confronting him - "pray your pardon!" - until he falls to his knees. During a candle-lit 2.2, with Iachimo's big wooden trunk at her bedside, she nears tears in missing her husband, her nightgown off one shoulder, and she prays a little before kissing Posthumus's bracelet. When Iachimo suddenly emerges from the trunk, jolting the lock out and startling some young audience members seated onstage, he moves right to Hawk's Imogen, kissing her and gesturing at the audience as the "figures" within the bedchamber. Iachimo's invasion is all the more repellent due to the purity of Hawk's Imogen, and he sits on the bed, then bites his tongue while removing her bracelet, but then he goes further, peeking under the covers, wiping his mouth, and marveling at the visions "screwed" to his memory. Hawk's Imogen inspires loyalty within Pisanio, charming him 3.2 when she squeals at the delivery of a letter from Posthumus, jumping up and down in impossibly cute anticipation, then scuffling over a knife 3.4, ending the struggle - "you have me and I will never fail" - with a thankful embrace.
John Harrell's oafish Cloten provides ample comic relief, practicing his sword technique 1.2, sniffing his armpit at the word "reek" and choosing to ignore the running derision from an attendant. In 2.1 he wears a scarf with tails and black boots, wielding a sword dramatically, but when he attempts to spit the name "Leonatus" he must pause and wipe at his chin, and his 2.3 serenade of Imogen includes the whole audience encouraged to join his woeful warble as backup singers. Imogen rejects him 2.3 - "the south fog rot him" — and Harrell's Cloten screams in girlish frustration before exiting in a stomp: "well!" And on a larger political scale, Cloten reveals callow ineptitude, scurrying like a schoolboy 3.1 to exit ahead of the Roman soldiers in their golden body armor and strapped sandals, and after intermission, he challenges Lucius, only to wince and squirm as his fingers are crushed in a manly handshake.
Warren's intermission includes three songs, performed by the entire cast, each tune contemporary but illustrative of the play: Radiohead's "Creep" points to the gross behavior of Iachimo, and the Beatles "A Hard Day's Night" seems to reference the hardships of Posthumus's banishment. Most notably, a rousing rendition of Foreigner's piano-thump "Cold As Ice" illustrates Imogen's mien toward Cloten, with three of the ladies - Hawk and Hostmyer joined by Traci Thomason - in an upper stage right window as groupie backup singers, dancing and swaying and posing. The second act begins with Harrell's Cloten threatening Pisanio with awkward fencing moves, shaking coins at her and snapping fingers in her face, then strutting off with cool-guy head bobs and gestures.
The subplot of Belarius and the lost princes is intimately and cleverly staged, using just an upstage curtain and the audience members seated on either side of the playing space. Belarius and the boys crawl from beneath the curtain as if emerging from a cave, and after Hawk's disguised Imogen appears in pony tail and top hat, tugging at the back of her pants - "a man's life is a tedious one" - Arviragus and Guiderius lounge around the supposed "cave," sitting and leaning back comfortably against the legs of the onstage audience. Hawk's Imogen peers out at them, just her face visible between the dark curtains as if she were slowly emerging from the shadowy mouth of a cave. When Cloten arrives and confronts Guiderius, he is wearing the comically undersized clothes of the shorter Posthumus - "his meanest garment!" - and he struggles to remove his glove for the challenge, finally pulling it from his hand with his teeth. When he finally frees the glove, he tries to fling it, but it falls ineffectually to his feet, so he must kick it over to Guiderius, who promptly begins to beat him - "ow! ow! ow!" - with it. Harrell's Cloten finally flees in undisguised panic, and the audience rewards the performance with spontaneous applause.
Warren peppers the production with interesting choices. When Guiderius returns 4.1 with Cloten's head within a bloody sack, he drops it to the stage with a sickening thump, and the princely brothers share a way-anachronistic high five, both frowning at the blood on their hands afterward: "ew!" Pointedly, when Imogen is presumed dead 4.2, they recite a solemn "Fear No More The Heat Of The Sun," then kneel, heads down and arms out like Muslims before her "corpse." The happy ending approaches with Posthumus tying a red headband around his forehead a la Rambo, suddenly changing sides mid-battle, choosing to save Iachimo's life before defending Cymbeline 5.2
The 5.3 deus ex machina includes the appearance of the Leonati, Posthumus's ghost-like relatives in blood-splattered white robes. They appeal to Jupiter, who appears in a somewhat surprisingly low-key blessing amid thunder and wind sound effects, Rene Thornton, Jr. giving the benediction from between audience members in the elevated musicians' box. The concluding 5.5 moves quickly with the romantic tying up of loose ends like a child's fairly tale. King Cymbeline presides, questioning the audience - "who is it that can read a woman?" - at the news the Queen has died, as Warren plums each delicious moment for its irony and humor. Iachimo shouts out "give me leave, I faint!" but continues telling his long story, Posthumus grabs the villain by his shirt but ultimately forgives him, and when Posthumus sags to his knees sobbing Imogen's name, Hawk's plucky heroine smiles and peeks out from beneath her top hat, embracing the King and requesting his blessing before approaching her husband. Perhaps most amusing is Guiderius's repeated attempts to interrupt the proceedings with self-incriminating but honest revelations about the fate of Cloten, as he continually starts to speak but is each time thwarted by his wiser brother and father: "let me end the story: I slew him." To audience applause, Warren concludes the unabashedly entertaining production, first Cymbeline embracing his long-lost sons, then Imogen embracing them, playfully putting her top hat atop one brother's particularly shaggy head.