The Bard charms in the Park
Spotlight shines on ‘Cymbeline,’ one of his lesser-known works
NEW YORK It seems like only yesterday that Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater were battling wits and setting off sparks at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. In fact, it was last summer when Rabe and Linklater, two of the finest stage actors of their generation (and a couple offstage), starred as Beatrice and Benedick in Public Theater’s delightful staging of Much Ado About Nothing.
The duo returns this year in another Shakespeare in the Park production of a less widely familiar and, frankly, consistent work, Cymbeline, which opened Monday. Rabe is cast as Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, the King of Britain, who when the play begins has greatly irked her father by marrying a commoner: Linklater’s Posthumus. The groom is abruptly banished from the court, upsetting Imogen and prompting elaborate displays of false sympathy from Cymbeline’s duplicitous second wife.
The Queen wants Cloten — her arrogant, oafish son from another marriage — to wed Imogen, and has other dastardly plans. Meanwhile, taking refuge in Rome, Posthumus has met up with the wily, weaselly Iachimo, who will trick Posthumus into thinking he has stolen Imogen’s virtue, setting off a chain of events that will bring the young marrieds confusion and grief before restoring them to each other’s arms.
The result is a sometimes uneven mix of bawdy humor, brooding melodrama and tender, whimsical romance. The excellent cast, under the robust direction of Daniel Sullivan — who helmed the Public’s gorgeous The Merchant of Venice several years back, with Rabe playing Portia to Al Pacino’s Shylock — ensures that the individual elements are at least played deftly.
Several of the principals do deft double duty, including Linklater, who also appears as Cloten. Playing his first character’s rival, the actor sports a ludicrous mop top and an expression that seems at once befuddled and indignant. At one point, he and a few fellow performers enact a parody of a goofy ’ 60s band — with original music provided by Tom Kitt, who also crafts more earnest, bittersweet melodies for other scenes.
Patrick Page, with his resonant bass-baritone and hearty wit, is ideally cast as the king, and also appears as Philario, Posthumus’ host in Rome. The marvelous Kate Burton makes a delectably catty queen, and further amuses as a crusty older gentleman of the court who has fallen out of Cymbeline’s favor.
Rabe, who also gets to pose as a guy (albeit a younger one) as part of the plot, brings her usual sly, sultry intelligence and patrician grace to Imogen. Theater fans get an added treat in the return of Raúl Esparza, who as Iachimo enters with a hilarious loungelizard production number and proceeds to be wicked and touching in equal measure.
As a showcase for the talents and range of these players, Cymbeline is, even at three hours long, an enjoyable ride.