Cymbeline (Globe)

Cymbeline is a good candidate for Shakespeare's worst play. With a labyrinthine plot that blithely skips between Roman Britain and renaissance Italy, and with a final scene that ties up the loose ends in one mad rush, it presents a major challenge to any director.

Full marks then to director Mike Alfreds for attempting something different and using the empty space of the Globe to tell the story in the most simplistic way possible. Eschewing scenery, elaborate costumes, with a minimal amount of props and just two percussionists for accompaniment, the company of six actors, playing several parts each, gives a clear and unfussy exposition of the story. This, indeed, is storytelling at its best and, as befits the Celtic season, this is going back to bardic traditions, where an audience can be enraptured by a tale, simply told.

That said, it's almost inevitable that problems arise from actors fulfilling multiple roles - the final scene, with its 27 revelations, is particularly hard to follow when one actor is playing three parts. And there's a natural tendency to concentrate on one role out of many. For example, Mark Rylance plays a wonderfully oafish, slack-jawed Cloten, dominating the show and delighting the audience. He's obviously enjoying every minute of it, but his Posthumus is delivered almost as an afterthought - it's not until the final scene, after Cloten has been killed, that it seems that he can give full vent to the Posthumus role.

John Ramm with his wonderfully villainous Iachimo, a real creep, and his dignified Belarius displays a much better balance. And Abigail Thaw makes the most of every line in her smooth performance as the villainous queen - her emphasis of the first syllable of Pisanio's name is spat out with relish and raises an unexpected laugh. Praise also for Rylance in drawing out laughs in the small role of the doctor.

But all the actors work hard. Richard Hope and Fergus O'Donnell juggle myriad roles and manage to invest degrees of subtlety in each. Jane Arnfield starts off rather stiffly as Imogen but gradually warms to the part.

It's good to see the Globe being used for productions like this. The temptation has always been to put on cod-Elizabethan displays in the hope of ensnaring those tourists who want some sort of Shakespearean experience. By reverting to the storytelling traditions (and Shakespeare was a master story-teller), Alfreds and his actors have done us all a real service. Is this the first sign that the Globe is beginning to reach maturity? It certainly makes me await the next season with new interest.

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