(Sept. 1, 2016) Boston-based Brown Box Theatre is returning to the area in September to present two weeks of Shakespeare.
This year the company, founded by Berlin native Kyler Taustin, will present “Cymbeline,” a story that blends swashbuckling adventure with romantic intrigue. According to Taustin, several major plot elements also mirror the modern political climate.
Taustin will direct the production.
“‘Cymbeline’ is about a young woman named Imogen who has married Posthumus, who is not of noble birth. Her father is not pleased with this fact and banishes him,” Taustin said. “The play really surrounds multiple different plots, but the main one is with Imogen, who is dealing with the repercussions of her husband being banished.”
While in Italy, Posthumus is confronted by a man named Iachimo who makes a bet that he can convince Imogen to commit adultery. She ultimately resists his temptations, but Iachimo convinces Posthumus that his estranged wife has been unfaithful to him.
“The travels continue from there, as Imogen is forced to try and prove her faithfulness as well as Posthumus dealing with the repercussions of the actions he takes when he finds out his wife was [supposedly] unfaithful,” Taustin said. “The play then surrounds a war that is about to take place in Britain because they have decided to no longer pay tribute to the Romans.
“It’s a high-stakes play with all the best things that we love about Shakespeare – sword fights, the romance that you find in something like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ it has the father-daughter relationship like in ‘King Lear,’ and it’s a full, packed romance with some comedy and some tragedy,” he added. “It’s a really lovely night at the theater.”
As a director, Taustin said he was drawn to the idea within the play of “truth being used and manipulated for personal/political gain.”
“That is a theme that resonates so purely with our society today, especially in an election year,” he said. “No matter what side you come from, I think certain truths are being manipulated for personal and political gain. I believe that we are in a society right now where truth is somehow being framed as being in the eye of the beholder.
“There are a variety of characters in this play that are forced to lie to stay true to what they know is right, and there are others who take the truth and manipulate it for their own gain,” Taustin continued. “There are both romantic and personal variances of that as well as political variances of that, where we have an evil queen who has gotten the king to stop paying tribute to Rome because she wants to be able to have more power.
“In the age of ‘Brexit’ and the age of what’s happening right now in our political sector, I think this play has a lot of themes that we can relate to. While it’s a minimally performed Shakespeare play, it’s rife with themes and topics and characters that we can see and relate to, and I think it serves as a bit of a warning for the use of national pride as a means to an end, as opposed to true pride in country and respect for its values. You see that in a lot of different ways with these characters.”
Last year’s Brown Box Theatre production of “Taming of the Shrew” gender-swapped several of the roles – casting nine women and only one man – to drive home the misogynistic tendencies of one of the central characters, Petruchio.
This year, Taustin said the company would opt for a more straightforward approach.
“There’s nothing that’s as blatant as that with regards to how we’re approaching the script,” Taustin said. “We’ve already been complimented with taking what is a relatively complicated plot and taking one story, one tale, and really making sure that people can latch onto the language and the themes and characters that are within the script.
“Something that I work very hard on every production that we do, but especially for the Shakespeare, is to make sure that it’s accessible to either someone who has read all or seen all of them, or to someone who is seeing their first Shakespeare play,” he added. “Hopefully it will be accessible and open to any audience member that we reach on Delmarva.”
Taustin said he hoped the takeaway would be for audiences to use the same filters for the truth that are present in the play and apply them to everyday life – especially when it comes to current national and global politics.
“The kaleidoscoping of the truth and the fracturing of reality is something that we should always be aware of and make sure that we question as a society, so we can make informed and productive decisions,” he said.
Worcester County productions of William Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” include Sturgis Park in Snow Hill on Sept. 2, downtown Berlin at the corner of Main and Pitts streets on Sept. 4, White Horse Park in Ocean Pines on Sept. 6, Cypress Park in Pocomoke City on Sept. 7, Northside Park in Ocean City on Sept. 9, and Sunset Park in Ocean City on Sept. 11.
All performances are free, open to the public and begin at 7:30 p.m.
Upcoming Brown Box Theatre productions will be announced this fall, including a new slate of shows that will run in the area in 2017.
For more information, visit www.brownboxtheatre.org.
This year the company, founded by Berlin native Kyler Taustin, will present “Cymbeline,” a story that blends swashbuckling adventure with romantic intrigue. According to Taustin, several major plot elements also mirror the modern political climate.
Taustin will direct the production.
“‘Cymbeline’ is about a young woman named Imogen who has married Posthumus, who is not of noble birth. Her father is not pleased with this fact and banishes him,” Taustin said. “The play really surrounds multiple different plots, but the main one is with Imogen, who is dealing with the repercussions of her husband being banished.”
While in Italy, Posthumus is confronted by a man named Iachimo who makes a bet that he can convince Imogen to commit adultery. She ultimately resists his temptations, but Iachimo convinces Posthumus that his estranged wife has been unfaithful to him.
“The travels continue from there, as Imogen is forced to try and prove her faithfulness as well as Posthumus dealing with the repercussions of the actions he takes when he finds out his wife was [supposedly] unfaithful,” Taustin said. “The play then surrounds a war that is about to take place in Britain because they have decided to no longer pay tribute to the Romans.
“It’s a high-stakes play with all the best things that we love about Shakespeare – sword fights, the romance that you find in something like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ it has the father-daughter relationship like in ‘King Lear,’ and it’s a full, packed romance with some comedy and some tragedy,” he added. “It’s a really lovely night at the theater.”
As a director, Taustin said he was drawn to the idea within the play of “truth being used and manipulated for personal/political gain.”
“That is a theme that resonates so purely with our society today, especially in an election year,” he said. “No matter what side you come from, I think certain truths are being manipulated for personal and political gain. I believe that we are in a society right now where truth is somehow being framed as being in the eye of the beholder.
“There are a variety of characters in this play that are forced to lie to stay true to what they know is right, and there are others who take the truth and manipulate it for their own gain,” Taustin continued. “There are both romantic and personal variances of that as well as political variances of that, where we have an evil queen who has gotten the king to stop paying tribute to Rome because she wants to be able to have more power.
“In the age of ‘Brexit’ and the age of what’s happening right now in our political sector, I think this play has a lot of themes that we can relate to. While it’s a minimally performed Shakespeare play, it’s rife with themes and topics and characters that we can see and relate to, and I think it serves as a bit of a warning for the use of national pride as a means to an end, as opposed to true pride in country and respect for its values. You see that in a lot of different ways with these characters.”
Last year’s Brown Box Theatre production of “Taming of the Shrew” gender-swapped several of the roles – casting nine women and only one man – to drive home the misogynistic tendencies of one of the central characters, Petruchio.
This year, Taustin said the company would opt for a more straightforward approach.
“There’s nothing that’s as blatant as that with regards to how we’re approaching the script,” Taustin said. “We’ve already been complimented with taking what is a relatively complicated plot and taking one story, one tale, and really making sure that people can latch onto the language and the themes and characters that are within the script.
“Something that I work very hard on every production that we do, but especially for the Shakespeare, is to make sure that it’s accessible to either someone who has read all or seen all of them, or to someone who is seeing their first Shakespeare play,” he added. “Hopefully it will be accessible and open to any audience member that we reach on Delmarva.”
Taustin said he hoped the takeaway would be for audiences to use the same filters for the truth that are present in the play and apply them to everyday life – especially when it comes to current national and global politics.
“The kaleidoscoping of the truth and the fracturing of reality is something that we should always be aware of and make sure that we question as a society, so we can make informed and productive decisions,” he said.
Worcester County productions of William Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” include Sturgis Park in Snow Hill on Sept. 2, downtown Berlin at the corner of Main and Pitts streets on Sept. 4, White Horse Park in Ocean Pines on Sept. 6, Cypress Park in Pocomoke City on Sept. 7, Northside Park in Ocean City on Sept. 9, and Sunset Park in Ocean City on Sept. 11.
All performances are free, open to the public and begin at 7:30 p.m.
Upcoming Brown Box Theatre productions will be announced this fall, including a new slate of shows that will run in the area in 2017.
For more information, visit www.brownboxtheatre.org.