KIDNAPPED children, a girl disguised as a boy and a draught of poison that isn't all it seems. It just has to be Shakespeare.

Cymbeline is rarely performed but on the strength of the RSC's latest production, I find myself asking why.

The plot is outlandish, even ludicrous towards the end, but director Dominic Cook handles it with such aplomb it works brilliantly. Even when Jove descends from the ceiling, a deus ex machina with enormous feathered wings, the audience never questions it.

Set in Roman Britain, the play tells three interwoven stories. Cymbeline, an ageing king driven on by his ambitious wife, opposes Roman rule; his two sons, kidnapped as children, are raised in the wild, while their sister is parted from her husband, first through his banishment and then the lies of a villain.

The performances are all excellent. It's difficult to single anyone out but special mention must go to Emma Fielding as the wronged heroine Imogen and Paul Chahidi as the doltish, petulant Cloten. Anton Lesser, superb as usual, is a charismatic villain.

The production looks stunning, too. The Britons, dressed in waistcoats and hats trimmed with fur and feathers, are like a group of colourful, badly dressed Morris dancers. The theatre vibrates with energy as they smear mud all over themselves and perform a haka before going into battle.

The actors are clearly enjoying themselves and the audience does too. Cymbeline is a triumph.

Christen Pears

* Runs until Saturday. Box office 0870 905 506

Published: 05/12/2003