I first speak to Trevor Nunn during what he calls “an oddly scheduled lunch-break”. Odd, apparently, in that it is three o’clock in afternoon. After a short speech masquerading as my first question, he laughs loudly and then hangs up. It takes me twenty minutes trying to get through to him again only to realise that his phone has run out of battery. When we finally get to speak, it turns out that he had spent ten minutes answering the question before realising that the line had long since died. According to one cast member, this isn’t the first time that Nunn has been totally unaware of what is going on around him while he’s speaking. At a Shakespeare workshop at the Lyric Theatre in July, Nunn’s first meeting with the cast, he gave a speech, as is his custom, setting out his plans for the play. A pigeon flew into the rehearsal room. Strutting around behind one of British theatre’s great luminaries, completely oblivious to the wisdom being aired in the room, the bird found a suitable spot, stopped, and proceeded to deposit a large souvenir on the floor before exiting quietly. Nunn continued unperturbed.

Two days later we are sitting on the stairs outside the rehearsal space in London, and he is speaking slowly, softly, with his eyes closed. “Cymbeline is capable of providing intense pleasure,” he tells me. Perhaps this is why he has chosen to have another crack at it, in the same venue where he played a minor part 47 years ago. He remembers the 1960 show rather fondly, perhaps unsurprising since in it he acted alongside fellow undergraduates Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen and was directed by George “Dadie” Rylands (then a don). However, he is quite clear that despite the stellar company “there was no certainty of success”. So does he anticipate similar stardom for the 2007 cast? “Many of them are harbouring those kinds of ideas and ambitions”. He pauses for effect, smiling. “And some of them I intend to encourage.”

Cymbeline has often rather confounded scholars. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was famously buried with a copy but the play has tended to be under-performed. Nunn offers an unusual angle on its genre. “Cymbeline has elements of pantomime”, he claims, perhaps grimly reminded of Varsity’s savage review of the 1960 production (right). “Much of it is deliberately anachronistic and mythical, Shakespeare walking a tightrope between naturalism and fairy-tale.” Nunn seems to be treading a similarly fine line between his instincts for crowd-pleasing and entertaining, and his academic zeal for Shakespeare.

At a recent event to mark the Marlowe Society’s centenary, Sir Peter Hall identified “a spirit of the text which impregnated everything and everyone” as the hallmark of the group. Nunn seems to have caught the bug. “It is excellent that in the theatre there are such well-educated people who do have the analytic abilities. Acting skills lie in passion, spontaneity and the instincts to lose oneself in a text – and you face the textual barrier of a difficult play.” A cast member compared one rehearsal technique to a practical criticism session. But how do today’s undergraduates match up to previous generations? Nunn’s endorsement is resounding, saying he has found the cast “very academically knowledgeable”.

One actor told me that although some disagreed with Nunn’s directorial style, all had found the experience “invaluable”. The worth of the Marlowe Society’s activities has come under scrutiny, particularly with Cymbeline, despite a budget three times that of normal Marlowe productions, currently being outsold by the Greek Play, Medea, which follows after it at the Arts Theatre.

Nunn, who has kept close links with the Marlowe Society, feels that it must continue to put on high quality Shakespeare, and that it must involve experienced professionals in helping the students to achieve this. “In an era where educationalists are encouraging the Government to diminish the importance of Shakespeare in the national curriculum it is important that someone safeguard Shakespeare for the next generation. And this is precisely the intention with which the Marlowe Society was set up in 1907, by a group of students, to encourage the performance of Renaissance verse drama and provide students with the experience to work with professionals.”

For this production, Nunn has recruited a team of professionals to give him a hand. Rather wide-eyed, one told me in private that “he does not do things in half measures”. Nunn has publicly claimed that “it’s going to be very simple” and that he “isn’t exactly basking in an enormous budget”, yet the design is said to be “bombastic and flamboyant”.

The Cambridge production will attempt to recreate the style of Blackfriars, an indoor theatre in which Shakespeare’s company used to perform during the winter months, and will put emphasis on the storytelling aspects of the play.

A spirit of the text which impregnated everything and everyone

Nunn has described the major Marlowe show as invaluable for offering student actors “a brush with professionalism”. Next week’s cast are certainly in for that. Students have been passed over for the roles of first assistant director, costume designer and production designer. And while the production has presented an opportunity to Cambridge’s thespian community which can only be called remarkable, a lingering issue is that Cymbeline boasts only three female parts. Shakespeare often presents this kind of problem to Cambridge’s casting directors, acutely felt in a university where female thespian talent is often considered superior to male.

Aspirants were required to submit an application prior to auditions. Only six actresses were recalled for an audition and five were cast. Unfortunately, the actress cast to play the Queen had to pull out for academic reasons, but casting director and Marlowe committee member Vivienne Storey was well placed to slip into the lead role at the last minute.

At root, it seems, Nunn’s vision for the play remains simplistic. “It is a good play for young people” he muses, appearing genuinely to have considered the best way to bring out the substantial talent of this company.

Profile: Sir Trevor Nunn
Born on January 14 1940 in Ipswich, Trevor Nunn began his dramatic career at Downing College, where he was also a member of footlights. He played a small role in The Marlowe's society's production of Cymbeline in 1960. In 1968 he was appointed Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a role he filled until 1986. Between 1997 and 2003 he served as Director of the National Theatre. As a director, he has brought several musicals to the worldwide stages including Cats, Les Miserables, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard. He has directed nearly all Shakespeare's major plays, including a 2004 production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, and has worked with contemporary playwrights such as Robert Bolt and Tom Stoppard, whose Rock 'n' Roll he directed in the West End. His RSC productions of King Lear and The Seagull have played at Stratford this year, opening at the New London Theatre in November.