Cymbeline is not one of Shakespeare's better-known plays today. To summarise: it's a sort of Romeo and Juliet in Roman Britain, with an added plot line about the plucky little islanders holding out against the Empire. In fact, the story covers quite a lot of standard Shakespearian ground, with cross-dressing, mortal poisons, kidnapped royals, forlorn-hope battles, and anything else you might wish for on an Jacobean night out.

But though there are a few moments when it seems to be in danger of pantomime, Cymbeline also comes very close to being a tragedy. The innocence of one character is besieged by the jealousy, mean-mindedness and misunderstandings of others, gradually revealing a chain of deception that threatens to destroy the royal household. Secret piles upon secret, and the body count begins to climb, as the courtiers of Cymbeline take sides.

There are a few false notes in this production, such as the faintly bizarre portrayal of Iachimo by Robert Eyers, or a disappointingly pedestrian recital of the famous lyric, 'fear no more the heat o'the sun'. However, these are more than made up for by some excellent performances – in particular Aoife Kennan as Imogen, who speaks clearly and beautifully from an often complicated script. Props also to Will Popplewell and Holly Willis as Cloten and the Queen, who make wonderfully cartoonish villains.

Pembroke Players should also be honoured for finally coming up with a set design and directorial conceit that make sense of the difficult Cellars space. The whole play is treated as if it were in the process of being filmed, and the audience sits around three sides of the stage, as if watching the action from behind the cameras. The actors principally give the play just as usual for the 'film', but borrow some of the lines (and add some of their own) to play out conflict on the film set. It might sound unusual, but the entire cast manages to slip between silver screen and sound stage with impressively little confusion. This is a particularly brilliant device for when Cymbeline starts getting into some heavy Roman politics: the convoluted language of imperial machinations is glossed over as an early script read-through, made comic by the obvious boredom of the film crew. However, getting some actors to play multiple characters on top of their dual representations was perhaps a bit too much, and there are one or two puzzling moments. 

All in all, this week's Pembroke mainshow is a pretty accomplished production, and deserves a bigger audience. The balance between comedy and tragedy, sinister politicking and convenient resolutions is well struck; the characters play out their passions, convincing as tragic figures, lovers and miscreants, with only a few missteps. This satisfyingly complicated play makes for a very good evening.

Cymbeline runs until Saturday 22 February at Pembroke New Cellars