In a new blog series, Cymbeline in the Anthropocene will be highlighting past performances of Cymbeline around the world--whether they were performed in theatres, on film, or myriad outdoor locations. First in this series is the Bard in the Barracks' summer 2016 Cymbeline in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, as presented by director Len Falkenstein. If you wish to suggest another Cymbeline for us to feature, please be in touch via our contact page, or on Twitter or Instagram @ecocymbeline!

Bard in the Barracks’ Cymbeline in Odell Park, June-July 2016 

"Our company performs outdoor Shakespeare productions in a large park in our city largely comprised of old-growth Acadian forest, with trees that are hundreds of years old. We stage our shows promenade-style, with no roof or fixed seating, and the audience following the action between different locations in the park. I always aim to match our productions, and individual scenes in the plays, to the landscape, and draw inspiration from it.

As director, I opted for a vaguely pre-Christian Celtic (with a bit of Disney/Princess Bride fairy tale mixed in) setting and design for the production, not out of keeping with the play’s actual temporal setting. For the scenes set in the courts of Britain and Rome, the audience moved between two relatively manicured locations in the park dressed with some “stone” columns  and a throne (Britain) and Roman columns (Italy). Imogen’s bedroom was located under an enormous many-branched old pine amid thick undergrowth so the audience had the experience of peering through a screen of actual foliage into this intimate domestic space.

For the scenes set in Wales, we moved to a much more rugged, natural part of the park on a hillside slope where there are low stone walls (relics of a former farm), thick roots and large trees and stones. The cave of Belarius (Belaria in our production), Guiderius and Arviragus was an actual tunnel-like dry creek bed with a lean-to roof that the actors had to climb in and out of (and was not so pleasant after it rained). It was a thoroughly magical setting for these scenes, especially in twilight, on a misty night, with the sounds of birds, insects, and animals all around. There’s nothing quite like having Belaria be able to touch the thick trunk of a generations-old pine as she speaks about it, staging the sword fight between Cloten and Guiderius on the lip of a gully, or the massive fight between the Britons and Romans under the stars with actors able to stage ambushes from between trees."

Len Falkenstein

Artistic Director, Bard in the Barracks