Book Club: Cymbeline
Shakespeare Dallas has launched a new opportunity for our audiences to meet and discuss the plays being performed in our season. Ever wonder how a director prepares an abridged script of a Shakespeare play? What method of text analysis take place to determine what is cut and what makes it onto the stage? If you missed out on our previous Book Clubs, you are invited to experience that process at our Book Club for Cymbeline!
Led by Artistic Associate Jenni Stewart and actor/scholar T.A. Taylor, Book Club gatherings are comfortable, fun and promise great discussions. The Book Club will meet for four sessions to read and discuss the upcoming play, provide a behind the scenes look at the production process, and receive an invitation to exclusive events.
Synopsis: Cymbeline, King of Britain when Augustus Caesar was Emperor of Rome, has a daughter, Imogen, and two sons who were stolen in infancy. The Duke, her second husband, has a son, Cloten, whom Cymbeline wants Imogen to marry; but she has secretly married a commoner, Posthumus Leonatus. Cymbeline banishes Posthumus to Rome, where he meets Iachimo, who wagers with him that he can seduce Imogen. Arriving in Britain, Iachimo realizes that she is incorruptible, but, hiding in her bedroom, obtains false evidence which convinces Posthumus that he has won the wager. Posthumus orders his servant Pisanio to kill Imogen at Milford Haven, but instead Pisanio advises her to disguise herself as Fidele, a page. In Wales, she meets her brothers, who were stolen twenty years before by the banished nobleman Belarius. Cloten pursues Imogen to Wales in Posthumus' clothes, determined to rape her and kill Posthumus. Instead, Cloten is killed by one of Imogen's brothers, and his decapitated body is laid beside Imogen, who has taken a potion that makes her appear dead. When she revives, Imogen/Fidele joins the Roman army, which is invading Britain as a result of Cymbeline's failure to pay tribute to Rome. Posthumus and the stolen princes are instrumental in defeating the Roman army. A final scene of explanations leads to private and public reconciliation.
SESSIONS:
November 28, 2022 | 6:30pm-9:30pm via Zoom
December 5, 2022 | 6:30pm-9:30pm via Zoom
December 12, 2022 | 6:30pm-9:30pm via Zoom
December 19, 2022 | 6:30pm-9:30pm via Zoom
Cost: $195 (Shakespeare Dallas ticket subscribers receive a discounted rate of $165).
Book club participants will receive a copy of the unabridged Folger edition of Cymbeline.
