Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” is rarely performed, but this year we have the opportunity to see two interpretations: A Noise Within in Pasadena and the New York-based theater group Fiasco’s version at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. A Noise Within’s version opened on Sept. 26 and ends on Nov. 18. The Broad Stage production will open on Dec. 13.

There’s a reason this play is rarely performed. It exists in an uneasy limbo between romantic fairy tale with a happy ending and an examination of dysfunctional families with dark deeds on their minds. It’s hard to imagine that ordering a hit on one’s spouse as part of a romance, particularly when Henry VIII wasn’t a so distant memory. In “Cymbeline,” the romance goes sour based on a lie, but due to fate and kind disobedience, a family is reunited.

Director Bart DeLorenzo sees this as set in an “unreal world, a literary fairy tale, in which the characters have arrived from other stories.”  A king furious with his daughter could come from “King Lear,” the ambitious wife is just another version of Lady Macbeth and the husband seduced into a murderous jealous rage is from “Othello.”

DeLorenzo, in his director’s notes, interprets this as a play of “significant doublings.”  We see the romantic suitor as both noble but misled with Posthumus and the silly fop in Cloten. For this reason, he has cast the same actor, Adam Haas Hunter.

Posthumus and Cloten are both in love with Imogen (Helen Sadler). She secretly marries Posthumus which angers her father Cymbeline (Joel Swetow), king of Britain. He banishes Posthumus. Before Posthumus leaves, he gives Imogen a bracelet and she gives him a diamond ring.

Cymbeline’s second wife (Francia DiMase) wants her son to marry his stepsister Imogen. That will give him the right to the throne. The king did have two sons, brothers to Imogen, but they were kidnapped 20 years ago. You know they will appear so Cloten’s ambitions will come to naught.

Posthumus flees to Rome where he is welcomed into the home of Philario (Swetow). There, Posthumus meets Iachimo (Andrew Elvis Miller). Iachimo wagers 10,000 gold ducts against Posthumus’ diamond ring, that he can enter Cymbeline’s court and seduce Imogen.

In the British court, Iachimo fails to seduce Imogen, but that doesn’t prevent him from winning the wager, or at least, giving the appearance he has won.

As this romance meets trouble, politic problems brew. The Queen has requested a potion from her doctor, Cornelius, and she claims she will use it for an experiment. Her suspicious doctor gives her a heavy sleeping potion instead of poison and soon enough the Queen puts her plot to poison into motion. Cymbeline has other troubles besides his deceptive Queen. The Roman ambassador has come to collect a yearly tribute from Cymbeline, but Cymbeline refuses and this means war.

An angry Posthumus orders his servant Pisanio to kill Imogen, but he takes her to the forest instead. There she meets, not dwarves, but two rough boys, Polydore and Cadwal, the supposed sons of Old Morgan. Morgan is actually Belarius (Francia DeMase) the former general of Cymbeline who was wrongly accused of a crime and fled Cymbeline’s court, taking two princes who he has raised as his own. They save Imogen, in more ways than one and this results in the death of Cloten.

Under the direction of DeLorenzo and the costuming by Angela Balogh Calin, the world created is a mix of eras. That might bother you as I heard vague murmurings in the opening night audience, but really this is minor. It’s so hard to set the right tone for “Cymbeline” and DeLorenzo tries to be mostly serious except for the foppish antics of Cloten who still didn’t deserve to die for his folly. That makes one uneasy and it’s hard to embrace the rough and cavemanish two lost sons who will be king. Hate to see how that marital matchmaking goes, but the play wisely ends without that in consideration.

As such, despite the merits of this production, “Cymbeline” is only for true fans of Shakespeare. Hunter handles Posthumus and Cloten well enough that you might not immediately comprehend they are played by the same actor. The weakest bit of casting is with DiMase as Belarius. There are women in Los Angeles who have played male warriors more convincingly.

“Cymbeline” does attempt to put a more realistic spin on the brutality of the right to rule, but softened it for the original audience by putting it far into the past. It might have worked better for members of an audience who might also attend a beheading, hanging or quartering, but it rests uneasy with today’s audience.

“Cymbeline” continues until Nov. 18 at A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Boulevard  Pasadena, CA 91107. For more info, call (626) 356-3100 or visit their website.