ANTONY & CLEOPATRA

National Theatre at Home, Global

08/05/2020 - 14/05/2020

COVID-19 Lockdown Festival 2020

Production Details



Watch Antony & Cleopatra with Sophie Okonedo and Ralph Fiennes play Cleopatra and Antony
from
UK time: Thursday 7 May at 7pm until 14 May 2020, finish by 7pm;
NZ time: Friday 8 May at 6am until 15 May 2020, finish by 6am.
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/nt-at-home-antony-and-cleopatra

Broadcast live from the National Theatre, Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo play Shakespeare’s famous fated couple in his great tragedy of politics, passion and power.

Caesar and his assassins are dead. General Mark Antony now rules alongside his fellow defenders of Rome. But at the fringes of a war-torn empire the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony have fallen fiercely in love. In a tragic fight between devotion and duty, obsession becomes a catalyst for war.

Director Simon Godwin returns to National Theatre Live screens with this hotly anticipated production, following previous broadcasts of Twelfth Night, Man and Superman and Hansard.


Cast, in order of speaking
Caesar:  Tunji Kasim
Agrippa:  Katy Stephens
Cleopatra:  Sophie Okonedo
Antony:  Ralph Fiennes
Eros:  Fisayo Akinade
Charmian:  Gloria Obianyo
Iras:  Georgia Landers
Soothsayer:  Hiba Elchikhe
Enobarbus:  Tim McMullan
Proculeius:  Ben Wiggins Sicyon
Official:  Shazia Nicholls
Lepidus:  Nicholas Le Prevost
Thidias:  Sam Woolf
Pompey:  Sargon Yelda
Menas:  Gerald Gyimah
Varrius:  Waleed Hammad
Euphronius:  Nick Sampson
Octavia:  Hannah Morrish
Canidius:  Alan Turkington
Scarus:  Alexander Cobb
Ventidius:  Henry Everett
Supernumeraries:  Samuel Arnold Catherine Deevy

Musicians
Magnus Mehta (Music Director / Percussion),
Joley Cragg (Percussion),
Kwêsi Edman (Cello),
Sarah Manship (Woodwind),
Arngeir Hauksson (Guitar / Oud)

Production Team
Director:  Simon Godwin
Set Designer:  Hildegard Bechtler
Costume Designer:  Evie Gurney
Lighting Designer:  Tim Lutkin
Music:  Michael Bruce
Movement Directors:  Jonathan Goddard Shelley Maxwell
Sound Designer:  Christopher Shutt
Video Designer:  Luke Halls
Fight Director:  Kev McCurdy

Broadcast Team
Director for Screen:  Tony Grech-Smith
Technical Producer:  Christopher C Bretnall
Script Supervisor:  Amanda Church
Lighting Director:  Mike Le Fevre
Sound Supervisor:  Conrad Fletcher  


Webcast , Theatre ,


No surprises and furious but steady pacing makes it rather bland and beige

Review by Brett Adam 10th May 2020

Simon Godwin’s production of Antony and Cleopatra for the National Theatre garnered rave reviews when it premiered in 2018. Both Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as the eponymous lovers are excellent, however the production as a whole leaves me little underwhelmed. Admittedly this may have something to do with the fact that I watch all three hours of it on my laptop, thereby missing the communal experience of being in the actual theatre, but these are the times we live in.

My main criticism of the production is the lack of any sense of surprise or immediacy. Everything seems inexorable and I feel that Godwin’s direction favours Shakespeare’s lyrical rhythms at the expense of theatrical freshness and tension. The events in the play just occur one after the other and neither the audience nor the performers ever seem surprised by anything. Rather, the actors take hold of the words and drive them onward at a furious and steady pace. There are few moments of pause or relaxation. This is not to say that the ensemble garbles the text in any way. The Brits obviously have an affinity for Shakespeare and every single actor makes the words clear and full of meaning. But the lack of variation in pace does make for a rather long three hours.

Fiennes in particular relishes the text and finds an ease of articulation and delivery that is always clear and affecting. Okonedo too is confident in the language, however I feel that she suffers from some strange directorial choices. She plays Cleopatra almost as a petulant teenager and I never see the power that she commands in her role as Queen of Egypt. Her relationship with Antony seems to be reduced to a tawdry suburban affair at times; the political machinations at work trying to tear them apart, feel distant and toothless. Even in their moments of passion the couple feel more like horny teenagers than mature powerful leaders.

As with a number of Shakespeare’s plays, there are two differing worlds that the characters inhabit. Here it is Imperial Rome and the more passionate and earthy Egypt. However this production does not play up their differences, thus diluting Antony’s dilemma of having to move between them.

Strangely, too, the drama of the piece is often eschewed for throw-away comedy. Even Antony’s attempted suicide gets some laughs. There seems to be a reluctance to really enter into the emotional maelstrom of the play and instead remain on the surface. Where there should be a sense of danger there is rather a feeling of blandness.

Overall, despite the very strong work of the ensemble, and Fiennes and Okonedo in particular, this production of Antony and Cleopatra is ultimately, for me, rather beige. 

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