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“Cymbeline” has never been one of Shakespeare’s popular plays, and it’s easy to see why. While its underlying subject matter is deadly serious, Shakespeare makes use of his full repertoire of plausibility-defying coincidences to tell a dark tale of jealousy and redemption, to the point where large chunks of “Cymbeline” can give the impression of resembling a comedy at least as much as a tragedy. Yet the awkwardness that arises from these incongruities seems to inspire actors and directors to give of their very best. I’ve reviewed three productions in the past 12 years—at Lincoln Center in 2007, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 2008 and Shakespeare in the Park in 2015—and all of them were noteworthy. Now Hudson Valley is giving “Cymbeline” another go, this time in a version staged by Davis McCallum, the company’s artistic director since 2015, and once again the miracle has come to pass: Mr. McCallum and his youthful cast have given us a “Cymbeline” so clear and confident that you’ll wonder why it doesn’t get done as often as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”…
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Read the whole thing here.The trailer for Cymbeline: