Melly Still
2021Royal Shakespeare Company: Cymbeline
Melly Still
James Cooney, Bethan Cullinane
Britain is in crisis. An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline's judgment is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and in an act of impulsive jealousy begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a long-lost heir and reconcile the young lovers.
Royal Shakespeare Company: Cymbeline
National Theatre Live: Nation
Melly Still
David Ajala, Gary Carr
A parallel world, 1860. Two teenagers thrown together by a tsunami. One wears next to nothing, the other a long white dress. Neither speaks the others language, but somehow they must learn to survive and forge a new nation.
National Theatre Live: Nation
Dvořák: Rusalka
Melly Still, François Roussillon
Sally Matthews, Evan LeRoy Johnson
Praised by critics as “magnificent”, “breathtakingly theatrical” and full of “zestful imagination”, Melly Still’s “spine-tingling” Rusalka is a Glyndebourne classic – a magical contemporary reimagining of a much-loved fairy tale. Light and darkness, beauty and danger come together in this passionate tale of love against the odds. At once evocative and unsettling, this production collides two contrasting worlds in Rae Smith’s elegant designs made of “brilliant stage-pictures”. Rusalka’s forest home is a dappled space of sunshine and shadows, full of strange woodland creatures, while the Prince’s court is a world of sleek modernity and sophistication – a world of man.
Dvořák: Rusalka
