Cymbeline

Ros King contends that scholars have misread the tone of Shakespeare's Cymbeline because they misunderstood what tragicomedy is and how it works. The play is often written off as a dull 'romance' or as a weak self-parody of Shakespeare's earlier themes. King argues instead that its strange, darkly comic mix and its skill at juggling several plotlines at once show deliberate craftsmanship.

Her study blends close readings of the play's most puzzling passages with accounts of stage performance and an examination of its historical, cultural and literary background. Across the book, Cymbeline becomes a lens for looking at early modern England's relationship with its Scottish king, at the religious conflicts across Europe, and at the indigenous peoples of North America.

King shows how the play uses its structure to pose bold questions about government, hereditary right and succession, and the idea of empire. She suggests that beneath the play's apparently joyful resolution runs a bitter, even tragic current, while the drama also tries to defuse the religious tensions of its own time. A final chapter traces how the play has been reshaped to answer changing cultural pressures.

King uses a 2000 production at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, where she worked as dramaturg, as a case study. From it she sets out principles for interpreting the text and considers the difficulties that critics and directors face when bringing the play to a modern audience as live theatre.