Cymbeline

Shakespeare's exhilarating late play of lovers under strain and leaders under pressure. Staged in an alternative present-day Britain.

An ineffectual ruler governs a divided, insular Britain, alienated from the rest of Europe. That ruler, Cymbeline, refuses to pay the taxes demanded by a foreign power, clinging to mythical notions of sovereignty. "Britain's a world by itself and we will nothing pay for wearing our own noses." But Cymbeline's judgement is clouded by grief, having lost his two older children as babies. When his daughter Imogen rebels and marries boyfriend Posthumus in secret, Cymbeline is enraged and banishes Posthumus. But waiting in the wings is a power-hungry figure, plotting to seize control by any means necessary.