‘Tragical-comical-historical-pastoral’: Shakespeare’s Cymbeline

Cymbeline, King of Britain (1610) is one of Shakespeare’s least well-known and most infrequently staged romances. The play dates from the period when the King’s Men were exploring the new resources of the indoor Blackfriars Theatre as well as the open-air Globe. It has a stylistic virtuosity that was neatly matched in Auckland by a 2006 Silo Theatre performance at the Dog’s Bollix, when actors tossed a coin each evening to determine the parts they would play.

Join Dr Sophie Tomlinson as she explores some striking features of this innovative and retrospective Shakespearean play, including Jupiter’s descent on an eagle and Innogen’s (or is it Imogen?) waking from a drug-induced sleep to realise she is lying beside what she thinks is her husband’s headless corpse.

Bio

Dr Sophie Tomlinson is an associate professor of English and drama at the University of Auckland, specialising in early modern theatre and drama. She is London-born but grew up in the wilds of south Karori. Sophie studied English, Italian and music at Victoria University in Wellington before completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. She has written numerous books and her work is driven by the nexus of text and performance, drama as aesthetic form and live action.

Event

6:00pm @Norma Taps, 90 Wellesley Street West, Auckland Central, Auckland 1010

Also speaking at this location at 8:00pm is Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere