Antony and Cleopatra performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (Swan), and: Richard II performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RST), and: Thomas of Woodstock performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (Barbican Theatre) (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Antony and Cleopatraperformed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (Swan), and: Richard IIperformed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RST), and: Thomas of Woodstockperformed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (Barbican Theatre)
I first went to Antony and Cleopatraon press night, watching it from a side seat in Gallery One, so I was above and slightly behind some of the action on the thrust stage. I had deliberately stayed away from reading any of the pre-publicity or discussing the production with anyone who had seen it in previews, wanting to come at it fresh although I knew it had been billed as an “adaptation” by Tarrell Alvin McCraney. I had been aware of McCraney’s playwriting work since he made his Young Vic debut with The Brothers Size; this version of Antonypremiered shortly after he had been awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. It was from these points of view that I first encountered the production.
It started with a jolt as Enobarbus spoke the first lines, his “barge of burnished gold” speech establishing him as the evening’s narrator. Since this Antonywas an Anglo-American co-production, I expected to see the British Empire (Rome) pitted against the crass American (Egyptian) upstarts. Instead, the American members of the cast adopted either Received Pronunciation or Caribbean-infused speech patterns, seemingly to allow a distinction between the perceived cultural superiority of RP for the Romans juxtaposed with the “other” of Caribbean accents for those under the imperial yoke. Only once, in the brief cameo of Ian Lassiter’s Thyreus, did anyone sound American.
The production was simple with little scenery apart from a pool of water against the upstage wall. This choice reminded me of the Young Vic production of McCraney’s The Brothers Size, which also featured minimal décor and in which the emotional lives of the characters were forcefully conveyed to the audience by actors’ physicality, an effect McCraney seemed to be trying to recreate here. The infusion of African music and representation of superstition was...
