Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's last plays which encompasses a plot full of lies, personal vendettas, and environmentally eye-opening experiences. While it is debated what genre Cymbeline falls under due to its realistically mature themes of innocence, love, and romance it’s modern adaptation by Shakespeare in Yosemite brings light to the more pressing matters of the play and applies it to our modern world.

Cymbeline the play is named after the King, who has a daughter named Imogen and a wife, stepmother to Imogen. Imogen is secretly married to a man below her class named Posthumous. This causes troubles in the family because Cymbeline’s wife, the queen, wants Imogen to marry her son Colten in order for him to be next in line for the crown. Because of these selfish and power-hungry wishes, they send Posthumous off to fight in the war against the Roman Empire. However, before Posthumous leaves, he gives Imogen a bracelet as a symbol of his love and loyalty. Imogen returns the gesture in the form of a ring. Following these heartfelt acts, the queen finds an apothecary to make her a potion or rather a poison that is meant to kill Imogen, fortunately to Imogen’s luck, the apothecary does not wish to kill Imogen and instead gives the queen a draught of sleeping potion. Posthumous finds himself in the heart of battle challenged by a fellow soldier after flaunting the beauty and loyalty of his wife Imogen. The soldier, Iachimo makes a bet with Posthumous, a bet which entails sleeping with his wife in order to test Imogen’s loyalty to Posthumous. Posthumous agrees and accepts to throw in his ring as a reward. Iachimo then tries to seduce Imogen to sleep with him, a seduction that falls flat on its face, yet Iachimo tricks Imogen into letting a treasure box into her room for safe keeping only to hide in it and lurk upon her sleeping chamber all while violating her body in the process as well as stealing Imogen’s bracelet. From this act Iachimo is able to trick Posthumous into giving him his ring and make him believe that his wife, Imogen, is unfaithful to her. Heartbroken, Iachimo orders one of his servants to find his wife and kill her in the forest. His servant does as he is told and finds Imogen, luring her into the forest by letting her know that Posthumous was waiting for her, however, the servant does not have the heart to kill her and instead spills to Imogen all the details of Posthumous affairs. The servant then helps her by providing her with some of his clothes and the potion the queen maid; he is under the impression that it is health draught. Imogen then flees into the forest due to aid from the servant and makes herself go by a boy. It is in this forest that Imogen finds a cave dwelling with three cavemen, two who happen to be her brothers without her knowing. She begins to feel sick and thus she takes the health draught which unfortunately puts her in a deep sleep. While this occurs, Colton looks for her disguised as Posthumous and goes on a vendetta to make her marry him by raping some sense into her. He finds her but so do the other cave dwellers and thus they behead him. Imogen is then found weeping over the body of Colten (because she is under the impression that it is her husband Posthumous do to his clothes) by a roman soldier and believes her to be a servant who is loyal to her master and offers her a job with the roman soldiers. Upon being there she once again is met with Iachimo and Psothumus; she then asks Iachimo how he got a particular ring (the ring Imogen gave to Posthumous which Ichimon won in the bet) and Ichimon confessed to her everything all while at ear shot of Posthumous. Keep in mind Imogen is still dressed as a man. Posthumous then cries out because he believed Imogen’s unfaithfulness and now, he realized that he sent for his wife to be killed and was successful, at least that is what his servant told him. The servant then reveals that Imogen is in fact not dead and that the queen had been plotting her death as well as the marriage of her son and Imogen. It is also revealed that two of the three cave dwellers were in fact Imogen’s brothers and sons of the kings.

While Cymbeline deals with much more than the environmental themes of the play, Shakespeare in Yosemite will highlight the moments in the play where nature is the main character rather than humans. An excellent adaptation is born that will open the minds of many to the environmental crisis that exists in our modern era and the ways in which the arts, and yes, even Shakespeare might help save the world from such a crisis.