Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan (SOTS) has regularly brought “The Bard’s” works to the stage in Saskatoon since 1985.
But it’s taken until 2022 for the company to tackle Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which will be SOTS’s main stage production this year.
“There’s a chaos to it. It’s not a perfect play — and in that way it’s very attractive to be a part of,” director Jennifer Brewin said. “It kind of suits what life looks like.”
Cymbeline follows the story of the titular King Cymbeline of Britain, who forbids his daughter Imogen from being with her paramour Posthumus as the king insists she marry and produce an heir from a royal bloodline to someday take the British throne. What follows is a series of hijinks including mistaken identity, murder plots, disguises, betrayals and battles as Cymbeline deals with the politics of his court and Imogen attempts to make her way to the banished and angry Posthumus.
Brewin noted that it’s intimidating coming into a company like SOTS and being handed the reins to a show that they’ve never produced before — but for her that also means the opportunity to put her unique stamp on the production.
“It is daunting on every single level,” she said. “The beginning of the play is chaotic, and by the end of the play everyone’s sort of found each other and they can’t quite figure out how that happened.”
As with all SOTS shows, the production of Cymbeline is not set in a traditional aesthetic. Instead, Brewin described the setting as taking place “in our imagination” and “in a fairy tale world,” drawing visual inspiration from a post-modern apocalyptic setting including leather armour pieces and weapons made from street signs and other debris.
“We borrow from reality, we borrow from history, and we borrow from what we imagine the future to be — and together it kind of merges into its own particular world,” Brewin said.
Mara Teare, who plays the king’s daughter Imogen, is in her first SOTS on-stage production. She was slated to be in the main stage season that was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Teare said while most people might not recognize Cymbeline in the same way they do Romeo & Juliet or Julius Caesar, there are a plethora of elements from those more popular shows in this play.
“I think people are going to be familiar with the tropes Shakespeare has, but I think people are going to be (surprised) by the ending, and the twists and turns that come along with it,” she said.
Describing it as a “highlight reel” of some of Shakespeare’s best works, Teare said people are going to be “surprised by a lot” as they take in a show full of Shakespeare witticisms but a more unknown plot.
Teare said she hopes the audience will enjoy the engaging and varied Cymbeline — and enjoy being back together to enjoy a modernized classic as the community continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I hope people come away with a sense of joy and excitement,” she said. “You don’t need to be some Shakespeare buff … it’s nice to come together as a group of people and just have some fun together.”
Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan’s Cymbeline runs from July 2 to August 14, 2022 in Saskatoon. Tickets can be purchased online at shakespearesask.com.
