With the new year underway, many of our collaborating theatre companies have begun rehearsing Cymbeline—if perhaps under more unusual circumstances than usual. As the covid-19 crisis continues to change how theatre makers are able to share their craft, many of our Cymbeline in the Anthropocene collaborators are adapting new ways to reach their audiences.

In episode 4, "Arrendador de Inglaterra / Landlord of England," the king and his entourage travel to visit John of Gaunt, who grieves his banished son from a sick bed. When the king arrives only to mock John's illness, what follows is a witty but ominous repartee.

In our final blog entry of 2020, Cymbeline in the Anthropocene project leader Randall Martin delves into the textual allusions indicating Cymbeline was originally a Christmas play, signifying an existential turning between ages that was relevant to audiences in both 1610, the year of its first performance, and in 2020. At the end of a year dominated by global health, ecological, and social crises, Cymbeline's prophecies offer a wisdom we can take into a new year, and a new era, as the world continues to transform.

We are delighted to announce that internationally distinguished Argentinian playwright, translator, actor, and opera and theatre director Mónica Maffía will be joining Cymbeline in the Anthropocene. Dr. Maffía will create a new translation of Cymbeline in Castilian Spanish, which will be performed by her Buenos Aires-based theatre company, Setebos.

Sharing Cymbeline, a community-sourced virtual project run by Shakespeare Link UK, has entered the action-packed, final half of Cymbeline. Submissions remain open for community performances of excerpts from the play's final act. In the videos below, directors of the Willow Globe Susanna Best and Philip Bowen (click here for our recent interview with Susanna and Philip!) recount the play's spectacular climax and denouement, giving potential community actors context for their performances.

Episode three of Ricardo II: A Bilingual Adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard II reads like a miniature study of land relations by various factions across the Merced Shakespearefest's bilingual cast. Following the failed duel between Henry Bolingbroke and Tomás Mercedes/Mowbray, this episode follows Henry, his father John of Gaunt, and king Ricardo II, as the six-year exile of Henry introduces grief and geographical distance into the relationships between these characters. 

Continuing our series of interviews with our collaborating directors, we turn to Susanna Best and Philip Bowen of the Willow Globe theatre, located in the Welsh countryside. Read on to find out how the Shakespeare Link UK company of this living, tree-grown theatre are adapting their theatre practice to the ongoing pandemic, along with some hints about their upcoming Cymbeline production!

Following Cymbeline in the Anthropocene’s first planning meeting last February in Santa Barbara, California, our collaborators created a wordcloud of major terms that emerged from its conversations and workshops. After mulling in our collaborator’s minds and Twitter archives during these months of global pandemic lockdowns, the wordcloud has now found physical form in a embroidered rendition, hand-crafted by our project researcher and website manager, Rebecca Salazar. The embroidery, pictured above, represents all the terms in our wordcloud in shades of green and grey as they wheel around a central pink flower, with all elements joined by black vines over a black background.

Episode two of Merced Shakespearefest's Ricardo II: A Bilingual Adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard II features the interrupted duel between Henry Bolingbroke and Tomás Mercedes/Mowbray. As the king enters to invite the opponents in, he first officiously removes a blue cotton face mask before speaking, highlighting how this production has integrated covid-19 safety measures into the blocking and costuming of this live-filmed performance.

In this 2020 Shakespeare lecture presented to McGill University’s Friends of the Library in partnership with the Festival, Cimolino argues that performing and responding to Shakespeare strengthens our existential resilience and empathy in the face of pandemic, climate-change, and political uncertainties.