Hartford Stage

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S

Antony & Cleopatra

Directed by Tina Landau

OCTOBER 7 -- NOVEMBER 7, 2010

buy tickets now

ANTONY & CLEOPATRA SIZZLE

Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson

Thanks to a director who isn’t intimidated by either Shakespeare’s body of work or influenced by the collective weight of generations of interpretations, Tina Landau grabs the audience by its senses. She presents Antony & Cleopatra, a cap E production of Epic proportions, moving actors so they are always exactly where they belong, lighting cues on target, sound that ranges from a trace to a decibel short of deafening. The stage is an open maw crowned by metal geometric rigging that subliminally links thoughts with the enormous surviving columns and carvings of ancient Egypt.

Against and within this stage is played out the lusty love affair of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Their romance (some histories say she bore him three children) is an unlisted character in the cast. Shakespearean actor John Douglas Thompson’s Antony exudes Roman authority and sensuality. He is soundly smitten by Kate Mulgrew’s Cleopatra whose appearance is the antithesis of popular conceptions of the well-educated, exotic Egyptian queen, the world’s wealthiest woman, who held her own with her armed forces. Mulgrew’s Cleopatra can go toe-to-toe with anyone, especially since she is barefoot, a saucy wench, whose pale complection and auburn hair suggest she was plucked from an ancient County Cork and dropped into Alexandria. In death Mulgrew’s Cleopatra becomes regal.

Shakespeare’s meticulous script, its cadence and majesty, grounds the action. Elizabethan English comes trippingly off the actors’ tongues. Intrigue within the Roman and Egyptian courts is well-delineated. The lovers’ insecurities are emotionally raw: Cleopatra’s jealousy of Antony’s political marriage with the patrician Octavia (willowly Kendra Underwood) stops short of ripping off her own skin; Antony’s emotional panic when Cleopatra turns her barge away from a losing battle and heads for home intensifies when he acknowledges the shame he has brought on himself by deserting his troops. Nevertheless, their love for one another remains constant.

This gripping production that shifts back and forth between drama and melodrama rivals a Cecil B. DeMille cinematic blockbuster. The language, its impeccable diction, is balm for our 2010 assaulted ears. Clever costuming (Anita Yavich) suggests the clothing and uniforms of the time; the intricate stitching of a Cleopatra frock and an elegant white column worn by Octavia are stunning. The lighting design by Scott Zielinski ranges from the boldly bright to the darkly mysterious. The original music and sound design of Linday Jones complement whatever is happening on stage

In his notes, artistic director Michael Wilson writes, “A theatre that embraces the spirit of Shakespeare is adventurous and fresh, constantly searching, always new.” This Antony & Cleopatra is adventurous, fresh and consequently, really new.