Cymbeline

is stunning. Seriously. Everyone must go see it asap at the Barrow Street Theatre near the Christopher Street stop off the 1 train in Manhattan.

The vigor of my recommendation comes fresh on the heels of my return from the performance, which I saw with my friend from Africa. This new production of Cymbeline demonstrates a perfect combination of humor and hope to jettison anyone away from the gloomy attitudes that muggy weather and gray skies bring.

I have to say I agree whole-heartedly with this New York Magazine review:

"The Fiasco Company brings joyful music, playful inventiveness and just an air-kiss of irony to Shakespeare's mock-epic. They remind us what theater, at its simplest and most powerful, is really for: the alchemical thrill of watching an entire world conjured into being out of sheer wit and will. A masterpiece."

- Scott Brown, New York Magazine

The most enjoyable aspect for me was that each of the actors not only sang (beautifully) the songs they composed together, but they also each played multiple instruments, and with genuine technical virtuosity!

If this is the future of theater, sign me up (and help me dust off my violin).