Guildford Shakespeare Company's annual celebration of Shakespeare's birthday, and this year's 400th anniversary of his death, comes to a close with a staged reading of Cymbeline on Saturday 30 April at St Mary's Church on Quarry Street.
Written around 1609-10, Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's last plays and focuses on the Romano-British King Cymbeline who ruled around the time of Christ. Possibly first written for the indoor playhouse The Blackfriars, the play is fuelled by politics, jealousy and sexual desire.
When the King's daughter Imogen secretly marries her sweetheart Posthumus instead of the son of his new Queen, Posthumus is banished and a plot to overthrow the King begins to gather momentum. As Roman invasion creeps closer to British shores, the play sweeps from Milford Haven to Rome and back again.