The Stage

Antony and Cleopatra

Published Thursday 21 July 2011 at 10:36 by Andrew Blades

In the opening scene of this new Antony and Cleopatra, we are introduced to a Roman triumvir in red lipstick and high heels. His Egyptian queen has seduced him into a mirror image of herself. It’s a neat device that is entirely borne out by the text, emphasising the play’s sexual ambiguities as well as its more familiar extremities of passion and utterance. The doubling of the incipient despot Caesar and Cleopatra’s eunuch Mardian (both played by Dominic Brewer) is another inspired move that invites the audience to question the relationship between political authority and sexual identity.

Lucy-Anne Holmes (Charmian) Lizzie Hopley (Cleopatra) and Tom Peters (Antony) in Antony and Cleopatra at Amphitheatre at Said Business School, Oxford Photo: Peter Wolfes

This is not to say that Creation sidesteps Antony and Cleopatra’s grandiosity. In what is perhaps Shakespeare’s most gloriously theatrical work, the characters are consistently, almost obsessively aware of the roles they are expected to play. This self-conscious staginess comes across in James Burton’s campy Pompey, who enjoys the trappings of power while ignoring its responsibilities, and especially in Lizzie Hopley’s Cleopatra. The femme fatale here uses the full range of body language and vocal nuance to get her own way. Nevertheless, when the black wig comes off, she reveals a heartbreaking vulnerability that makes her demise genuinely moving.

In the folio version, this is a long and wordy play, and Helen Tennison’s cuts are mostly judicious. Much of the delivery is zesty - energy levels rarely flag. As in previous Creation summer shows, the amphitheatre at the Said Business School proves an apt setting, allowing the grander speeches to reverberate sonorously, while being small enough for the most intimate scenes. Productions of Antony and Cleopatra are a surprisingly rare occurrence - this one is a rare treat, and highly recommended.