by Ian Diddams
images by Penny Clegg and Shakespeare Live
“Antony & Cleopatra” is one of Shakespeare’s four “Roman Plays”, and chronologically is set after “Julius Caesar” as the new triumvirs Mark Antony, Octavius and Lepidus between them oversee the Roman Empire. Basically we start with Mark Antony all loved up, and avoiding his duties until recalled to Rome by Octavius to help fight pirates whilst playing down their distrust of each other. The rest of the play concerns itself with political chicanery egged along by the inevitable soothsayer complete with prophecies of doom and gloom … Our eponymous hero should have considered Julius Caesar’s similar warnings – but this is Shakespeare so why would he do that? Keen eyed readers may already have spotted a pattern with Shakespeare and prophecies of course… He makes some pretty dashed poor tactical mistakes over battles and ends up killing himself, leaving Cleopatra to similarly despatch herself in grief … keen eyed readers may already have spotted another pattern with Shakespeare and lovers killing themselves over misunderstandings… Shakespeare Live bring this Shakespearian tragedy to life on tour, opening at the Rondo.
The play takes anything up to three hours to normally complete – but director Jacky Crosher has superbly trimmed the text to just a hundred minutes, concentrating on the juicier scenes and real plot developments while using extraneous introduced Greek chorus style narrators to fill in the more prosaic plot areas. The result is a rollocking production that keeps the audience entranced but her directorial influences don’t stop there. The great naval battles on which Mark Antony’s fate resides rather than being glossed over as per the text are brought to the fore in riveting scenes of their own, played out with two full navies on a tempestuous sea via choreography and music. Similarly the land battle is performed in stylised choreography quite superbly.
All of this also wrapped with various well known musical items from Rodriguez to Black Sabbath. Full kudos to Jacky for creating such a wonderful melange of art styles to tell this tragedy.
The cast are no less excellent. When you portray a pair of lovers it is important to have on stage chemistry – a belief that the two characters are into each other, so how better to cast such a couple than with a real life couple; so step forward Mr. & Mrs. Finlay, Rob and Maria as the wonderfully played eponymous pairing. Andy Cork’s Enobarbus is sublime, Lucy Upward’s deferential yet sister-like Charmian delightful while Naomi Miller as Iras shines alongside her as Cleopatra’s companions.
Liz Hollis cameos her way almost sprite like as the inevitable Shakespearian soothsayer, all melodramatic cloak waving, and as a messenger and finally as Eros, squire to Mark Antony. Jeremy Reece advises Mark Antony smoothly while many of the already mentioned also then wade in as a clown, Egyptian and soldier.
Naledi Withers almost surpasses her excellent role of Octavius Caesar in her presentation – its that narrator thing – of a newspaper reporter, while in her main role in Rome she is excellently supported by Jeremy Reece (again!) as Lepidus, the far more sensible member of the Triumvirate! Naomi Miller also doubles up just as splendidly as Octavia, Octavius’ sister who gets married off to Mark Antony, while the stalwarts of Shakespeare Live Gill Morell and Graham Paton as ever shone in their roles as Dolabella and Thidias, and Agrippa respectively.
Tech as ever is delivered by the ever dependable Alex Latham, with more back stage stalwarts of James Dennis and Connor Palmer stage managing it all. The costumes are sumptuous, the set perfectly simple… a black box with a settee, easy to tour with and never distracting on the eye.
For a roller-coaster ride through post Julius Caesar Roman history, a love story, political chicanery and a tragedy you can do WAY worse than catch Shakespeare Live on tour – tickets available at
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/shakespearelive
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