To the Globe once more for a spot of Shakespeare as Lynne and I take our seats for a very unusual and innovative production of Antony & Cleopatra.
The story takes place after the death of Julius Caesar when the Roman Republic is being ruled by a Triumvirate – Mark Antony (John Hollingworth), Octavius (Bert Seymour) the adopted son of Julius Caesar, and Lepidus (Peter Landi). Whilst Octavius and Lepidus remain in Rome, Mark Antony is in Egypt, where he basically neglects all his duties to while away his days, not to mention nights, with the beautiful Queen, Cleopatra (Nadia Nadarajah). It looks like nothing will move Antony from Cleopatra’s court, not even the actions of his wife Fulvia leading a rebellion against Octavius and then dying. Octavius is not happy with the situation and summons Antony back to Rome to help him fight against Sextus Pompey (Gabin Kongolo). Despite Cleopatra’s entreaties and tantrums, Antony sets off back to Rome and once there makes his peace with Octavius and vows to support his fight with Pompey. As a display of his loyalty to his fellow Triumvir Octavius, Antony embraces Agrippa’s (Esther McAuley) suggestion he marries Octavius’ sister Octavia (Gabriella Leon), making them truly brothers. How will Cleopatra react to Antony’s marriage – no spoilers but not well – and can the newly formed fraternalism between Octavius and Antony last? Or will it all go wrong leading to war, blood and horrible deaths.
In the introduction paragraph, I mentioned that this is a very unusual production of Antony & Cleopatra, and it really is. The reason being that not only is the play performed bilingually but, as well as spoken English – used by the Romans – the Egyptian characters all converse as described in the programme a combination of British Sign Language (BSL), Sign Shakespeare (SSL) with elements of sign theatre and home signs. Whilst I am vaguely familiar with BSL, the others were new to me but were very expressive in portraying the conversations and thoughts of the characters. With any form of sign language, the movement of the body and face is of major importance when conveying emotion and this was quite amazing to see as the Egyptians talked to each other and the Romans. But there was an issue here. For those that do not understand BSL et al, captions were provided, and that gave me two problems. The first was that of necessity, the captions were quite high above the stage and reading them meant I wasn’t able to watch the actors and often missed bits of business which had the Globe groundlings, with their better view looking up, reacting quite loudly. The second, as this is probably just me, was what felt like the randomness of the sentence layout. Some sentences were right-hand justified, others left and others centred which I found slightly irritating.
Having said that I loved the idea of using the two languages to emphasise the difference between the two sets of characters and thought it worked really well, particularly with the Romans such as Antony and Enobarbus (Daniel Millar) who seemed to be fluent in BSL, emphasising their love of all things and people Egyptian. Octavious on the other hand spoke normally to Cleopatra when he met her, possibly a subconscious power move on his part to emphasise that he believed he was the ruler and she a mere prize.
There is a lot to unpick in the story itself, which may be why it is around 2 hours 45 including an interval. Shakespeare has written some quite complicated characters for this, particularly in the form of Cleopatra who oscillates between a powerful ruler, a seductress, a selfish brat, a flirty girl and a heroine of sorts. A difficult role for an actor to play but Nadia Nadarajah really brought out these and other facets of the character beautifully. Her chemistry with John Hollingworth’s Mark Antony is palpable and it’s obvious why this otherwise committed soldier turned his back on Rome to stay in Alexandria. Great acting from both of them. Full credit as well to the other twelve members of the cast who play over thirty characters between them. I’m going to single out Nadeem Islam who, as the messenger, really put his all into delivering bad news to someone that didn’t want it.
There’s not much more to say about this production of Antony & Cleopatra. The innovative use of different languages worked to a certain extent and Director Blanche McIntyre, along with the large creative team, should be applauded for pulling everything together and presenting a fascinating and accessible production that brings the tragic tale told with the beauty of Shakespeare’s immortal language to the widest audience possible.
Review by Terry Eastham
For the first time in ten years, Antony & Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s colossal story of love, duty, and power unfolds in the Globe Theatre in an epic bilingual production using Spoken English and British Sign Language.
Rome is an empire ruled by men. Egypt is a kingdom governed by a woman.
Despite their different cultures, Roman general Antony falls for Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Their passion blazes across two continents, upsets the world order and puts thousands of lives at risk.
COMPANY
Mark Donald – Dolabella / Maecenas / Eros / Messenger From Sicyon
William Grint – Soothsayer / Clown / Diomedes / Antony’s Soldier
John Hollingworth – Mark Antony
Nadeem Islam – Alexas / Messenger
Gabin Kongolo – Pompey / Decretas / Fourth Watch
Peter Landi – Lepidus / Candidius / Third Sentinel
Gabriella Leon – Iras / Octavia / Thyreus / Third Watch
Rhiannon May – Seleucus / Cover
Esther McAuley – Agrippa / Proculeius / Menas / Second Watch
Zoë McWhinney – Charmian
Daniel Millar – Domitius Enobarbus
Nadia Nadarajah – Cleopatra
Bert Seymour – Octavius Caesar
Tom Simper – Second Sentinel / Messenger to Caesar / First Watch / Cover
CREATIVES
Director – Blanche McINtyre
Designer – Simon Daw
Fight and Intimacy Director – Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown of RC-Annie
Choreographer – Mark Smith
Associate Director – Charlotte Arrowsmith
ANTONY & CLEOPATRA
By William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Globe
4 August to 15 September 2024
