STRATFORD — As he prepares to assume the mantle of artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival — where he has already served as everything from actor and leading man to General Director — Antoni Cimolino seems to have recognized that one must walk before one runs.

To that end, he’s abandoned distractions like rock music scores and time shifting, which marked his earlier flawed forays as a director of Shakespeare, and embraced notions like textual clarity and solid performance instead.

The result is a production of Shakespeare’s oft-overlooked Cymbeline that, for fans of the classics, ranks as nothing less than a must-see production. Cymbeline opened on the intimate stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre Thursday.

Featuring a labyrinthian plot that all but defies description, the work is set in the court of Cymbeline (Geraint Wyn Davies), King of the Britons, in the time of the Roman occupation — a court filled with intrigue and strife.

While his new queen (Yanna McIntosh) plots against her lord and master in an attempt to place her own son, the thuggish Cloten (Mike Shara), on the throne, Cymbeline himself is in a rage because of the romance that has sprung up between his beloved daughter Innogen (Cara Ricketts) and Posthumus (Graham Abbey, reclaiming the spotlight on these stages), an orphan raised in the court of the king.

But when Cymbeline, determined to force his daughter into the arms of his conniving stepson, exiles Posthumous in a fit of pique, the king inadvertently sets in motion a plot that comes close to bringing his entire world tumbling down around him. Posthumous ends up in Italy where he meets the ignoble Iachimo (Tom McCamus) who succeeds in casting doubt on Innogen’s fidelity and driving a fatal wedge between the two lovers.

As if all of that is not enough to set your head to spinning, Shakespeare throws in a sub-plot involving a long-exiled nobleman (John Vickery) and Cymbeline’s kidnapped sons (E.B. Smith and Ian Lake), long presumed dead, for good measure.

This is, it must be said, a hugely impressive ensemble, its numbers swelled by the likes of Peter Hutt, Nigel Bennett, Ian Clark, Andrew Gillies, Brian Tree and a host of others — and from the very top of the show, Cimolino makes the most of its talents, shaping performances that showcase the best of each actor’s individual skills, while still serving the complex demands of text and story.

This is a Cymbeline that will keep you constantly engaged and often delighted, even as it wracks up more happy endings than a whole book of fairytales.

And while he makes the most of his technical team — sets by Scott Penner, costumes by Carolyn M. Smith, lighting by Robert Thomson and music by Steven Page — Cimolino keeps the focus on his superb cast, never allowing them to be overshadowed by directorial or technical flourishes.

Rather than trying to impress by entirely reinventing the work, he incorporates the best of previous productions and adds his own ideas to make this production thoroughly and completely his own.

And it pays off in spades. Wyn Davies, Ricketts, Abbey, McIntosh, Shara, McCamus — they all give performances that are utterly fearless and little short of thrilling, supported at every turn by a strong supporting cast, each of whom seems to not only know his stuff, but his place within the production as well.

As he prepares to assume artistic control of his beloved Festival, Cimolino has proved that while he is prepared to let fine actors talk the talk, he has finally learned, at least from a directorial point of view, to walk the walk.

» By John Coulbourn, Toronto Sun (06.01.2012)

Cymbeline

By William Shakespeare. Directed by Antoni Cimolino. Until Sept. 30 at the Tom Patterson Theatre. 1-800-567-1600.

As far as I’m concerned, the second 60 years of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival began on Wednesday night, when Antoni Cimolino’s production of Cymbeline showed where the festival was going.

Under its newly appointed artistic director, we can count on Shakespeare being presented unflinchingly, no matter how difficult the text might be, while being acted with honesty and commitment.

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s last plays, sometimes called a romance, but one of his hardest scripts to stage properly. It’s a bizarre mixture of revenge tragedy, military spectacle, impossible coincidence and godlike interventions.

Most directors come up with some sort of artificial idea to link it all together, but not Cimolino. During the 90-minute first act, he puts what’s on the page onto the stage with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of clarity.

We follow the story of Cymbeline, King of Britain, his evil wife, her wicked son, Cloten, their noble daughter, Innogen, her beloved Posthumus and the lecherous Iachimo.

A complex web of deceit is woven and one wonders how it will ever get untangled.

The evening’s second half builds in complexity and here’s where Cimolino shows his directorial smarts, showcasing a spectacular series of fights by Todd Campbell (the best in recent Stratford history) and a surprisingly spectacular use of Scott Penner’s set, lit to its advantage by Robert Thomson.

And when the final scene comes, with all of its impossible reconciliations and explanations, he simply takes his time, bringing it all to a happy conclusion.

It’s the toughest but best way to tackle this play and it shows Cimolino’s courage. It also shows his willingness to trust his cast, a trust which is paid off a hundredfold.

Where to start? Cara Ricketts has never been better than she is here as the woebegone Innogen, not only a radiant woman when called for, but a convincing boy when the plot demands it.

Veterans in villainy like Yanna McIntosh and Tom McCamus turn in vivid performances as the evil Queen and the slimy Iachimo, but Mike Shara does something boldly comic as the clueless Cloten that manages to combine dastardliness and laughs at the same time.

An actor like Brian Tree, too often relegated to stock comedy roles, proves here with Pisanio that he can still deliver a fine, complex character, and solid types like Nigel Bennett and Jon Vickery also make every moment count.

It’s also wonderful to have Geraint Wyn Davies unafraid to unleash the kind of grand, yet heartfelt acting, the role of Cymbeline requires. He makes you understand why the play was named after him and his journey touches us deeply.

But the best news of the evening comes from the return of Graham Abbey as Posthumus. Abbey was one of the Shakespeare Festival’s leading men a decade ago, when he was often too young for the roles he was given.

But the actor who has returned is a different creature. A man, not a boy, he has the physique and voice the great Shakespearean roles demand, but he has also learned to save that ringing Olivier-styled trumpet of a voice he possesses for the climactic moments. Much of his performance is tightly reined in, making minimum acting producing maximum effects.

But when he finally breaks down in repentance during the final scene, it’s one of the most moving moments on a Stratford stage in recent years. Let us pray that Cimolino binds Abbey to his side with hoops of steel and we see him provide the kind of backbone the company needs.

From the clarity of the verse speaking to the haunting music commissioned from Steven Page, this is a production that shows the mark of its director confidently on it.

I think we can all consider ourselves lucky that he’s the man in charge at Stratford, starting next year.

» By Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star (06.01.2012)
Photo: David Hou