In today’s Wall Street Journal I review a webcast of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis’ “TourCo” production of Cymbeline. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Earlier this season, Shakespear…
Earlier this season, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis put together a small-scale 90-minute touring production of “Cymbeline” adapted and directed by Tom Ridgely, the company’s producing artistic director, that was intended for performance in schools and communities where Shakespeare’s plays are not regularly seen.
Acted by six young women in casual modern dress who collectively enact more than two dozen roles on an all-but-bare stage, the production gets under way with a “living study guide” that walks viewers of all ages through the proliferating complexities of “Cymbeline” in an uncondescending way.
It’s the sort of Shakespeare staging that rarely gets seen, much less reviewed, by big-city critics, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, SFSTL, unable to take its “Cymbeline” on the road, instead taped it with a single video camera in front of a tiny audience of staffers and crew and has made the results available for free on the company’s Facebook page…
