Shakespeare: Rank His Great Tragedies

[french frank]

Cymbeline (totally barking plot, which would work better as an opera: successful productions of this play are rarer than flying pigs).

Cymbeline isn't really a tragedy, is it? Yes, I know that, but it isn't, is it? I have my recording of the R3 production from December 2006 which I much enjoyed. A small part of it was recorded in a cave in W. Wales

The plot is a bit bonkers, but Shakespeare's plays often are: how successfully does he rework his material so as to grip the audience emotionally?

[Conchis]

Cymbeline isn't really a tragedy, is it? Yes, I know that, but it isn't, is it? I have my recording of the R3 production from December 2006 which I much enjoyed. A small part of it was recorded in a cave in W. Wales

The plot is a bit bonkers, but Shakespeare's plays often are: how successfully does he rework his material so as to grip the audience emotionally?

I'd agree about the categorisation: of all the 'problem plays', it's the most 'problematic'. Only two people are die (one slain in battle, one by suicide) and they're both villains. The one villain who survives isn't that villanous, just a bit of a 'chancer'.


I have the old Caedmon recording: Claire Bloom as Imogen, Alan Dobie as Iachimo, Pamela Brown as the Queen, Boris Karloff(!) as Cymbeline, Paul Daneman as Cloten.

Claire Bloom later played the Queen in the BBC TV Shakespeare.

I think it is a play that works a lot better on radio than it does on stage, where the 'credibility problem' of Imogen waking up next to a headless corpse which she presumes to be that of her husband doesn't have quite the same potential for risibility.

I ought to add: I've never seen the play performed on stage.

[french frank]

I think it is a play that works a lot better on radio than it does on stage, where the 'credibility problem' of Imogen waking up next to a headless corpse which she presumes to be that of her husband doesn't have quite the same potential for risibility.

Yes, I see why you think it would be better as an opera - where someone can become unrecognisable by putting on a hat.

[Conchis]

Yes, I see why you think it would be better as an opera - where someone can become unrecognisable by putting on a hat.

What I refer to as Posthumus' 'wronged husband's aria' really upsets feminisits with its explicit mysogeny. Many years ago, I had to perforn it at a recital. One female audience member berated me afterwards - she prsumed I'd chosen the speech because I endorsed its sentiments. I actually took her comments as a compliment on my acting! :)


Posthumus is another of Shakespeare's passive roles: it is a major role but, bascially, he doesn't do anything much - just permits things to happen to him and waits for his luck to change (which it does, eventually). So, it's alwayas a bit of a surprise when he disarms Iachimo in the battle at the end. As he and Imogen don't have many scenes togehter, it's hard to decide what she really sees in him - maybe in a world in which the men are either creeps like Iachimo or dolts like Cloten, he shines like the proverbial 'good deed'?

I suspect the role of Imogen may be unplayable on the stage: several esteemed actresses have failed in it - including Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave, though I hear Peggy Ashcroft (who played the part when she was staring 50 in the face) was memorable. By far the most satisfying role in the play is that of Cloten - a gift for an actor who doesn't mind being disliked by an audience: it would count as a demoralising role were he not so gloriously awful!