Royal Shakespeare Company ~ Antony & Cleopatra

Dan and Steven and I went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Power Center in Ann Arbor tonight. I wish that Bill could have also gone, but the tickets sold out months ago, and I did not know he would be home this weekend, so did not get him one.

I have seen many of Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies on stage (alas, I have not had the chance to see any of his histories as of yet) but had never before seen Antony and Cleopatra. I had thought that perhaps this was not one of his better works, but that is definitely not the case. The play was wonderful, with many very funny lines and moments - probably the most funny of his tragedies by far. I now think that the reason it is so seldom staged is that you need one hell of an actor to hold his own as Antony if you have a good actress in the role of Cleopatra. If you do not have a top notch actor as Antony, the play would be very unbalanced.

Luckily the Royal Shakespeare had a world class actress as Cleopatra in Harriet Walter, and a world class actor as Antony in Patrick Stewart. In fact, many of the people in the supporting roles, such as John Hopkins as Octavius, Ariyon Bakare as Sextus Pompeius, Ken Bones as Enobarbus, Chris Jarman as Eros, and Golda Rosheuvel and Emma Jay Thomas as Cleopatra's hand maids were simply wonderful. In fact, I cannot point at a poor or even mediocre performance on the part of the entire company.

The set was very simple, primarily using lights against the back of the stage, which placed the attention right on the performances. And the performances, as I said, were definitely worth paying attention to.

The costumes were also fairly simple, which also added to watching the performances. And seeing Patrick Stewart scantily clad is quite nice.

I have always thought that the company in Stratford, Ontario to be the best Shakespearean actors in the world (no offense to Meadowbrook, various university productions, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, or the folks at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater). I now have to revise my opinion.

The plays I have now been fortunate enough to see:

All's Well That Ends Well

Antony and Cleopatra

As You Like It

Julius Caesar

King Lear

Macbeth

Merchant of Venice

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Othello

Romeo and Juliet

The Taming of the Shrew

The Tempest