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Theatre
Cymbeline
Playwright: William Shakespeare
Director: Melly Still
RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon
(01789-403493)
Until 15 October, then Barbican, London
31 October-22 December
Running time: 3hrs 20 mins (including interval)
**
Cymbeline "has rarely had a good press", said Michael Billington in The Guardian. Dr Johnson complained of its "unresisting imbecility", and Bernard Shaw dubbed it "stagey trash". Yet in production, this tricky, uneven play - which mixes the story of a king's resistance to Rome with any number of subplots - can work just fine, and Melly Still's new RSC staging is "vigorous and inventive". Still and designer Anna Fleischle have set the piece in a...