Central hosts a Special Screening of Cymbeline in the Embassy Theatre

In December, Central hosted a special premiere screening of Cymbeline in the Embassy Theatre.  Supported by Central and Illuminations Media, the screening provided audiences with an unparalleled opportunity to see two versions of scenes from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline consecutively in the Embassy Theatre.

In November 1937, BBC Television broadcast six scenes from an Embassy Theatre production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline which was entitled Scenes from Cymbeline.  For the broadcast, nine actors from André van Gyseghem’s production played six scenes from the first and second acts of Shakespeare’s play.  In April 2019 Cymbeline, co-directed by Central’s MA Acting Classical Course Leader Ben Naylor and Anna Healey, was staged by Central’s MA Acting in the School’s new Courtyard Theatre.

Recognising the symbolism, as Central is built around the original Embassy Theatre where van Gyseghem’s production was staged, Ben Naylor and producer Professor John Wyver set about on a unique research project to reconstruct the lost 1937 broadcast from the surviving camera script, and comparatively film the same scenes from the 2019 production.  This restaging allowed for an interrogation into the nature of broadcast recordings, and provided an opportunity to get a real, visual sense of the first television dramas.  It further provided Central’s MA Acting Classical students with a distinct performing and learning experience, and the newly opened, state of the art broadcast and media facilities in the School’s North Block building provided the ideal location to fully realise the project.

To recreate the original filming, images of studio production from the late 1930’s were studied in order to get a sense of how television dramas were blocked and lit.  Research was also undertaken into camera capabilities of the time, and approaches to performance styles for 1930’s Shakespearean production were studied.  The end result of this investigation and research was a week-long multi-camera shoot to capture the six scenes as played for television in 1937 and as staged for Central’s 2019 production.

Of the project, Central’s MA Acting Classical Course Leader Ben Naylor said:

“The Cymbeline 37/19 project with Illuminations was a fascinating opportunity to explore the acting style and screen language of a lost landmark in Shakespeare performance; as well as an amazing opportunity for the MA Acting (Classical) students to work with the UK’s premier performance capture team to learn acting skills relating to the increasingly popular medium of filmed theatre. The collaboration with Illuminations allows us to explore performance questions at the cutting edge of classical performance, as well as engaging in some extraordinary theatrical archaeology.”