I went to see Anthony and Cleopatra last night and it should have been so much better! The staging was great and as Welch says, the eunuch and prophet were, too. But the main characters failed to convince.
Quote from Anne Marie Welch in The San Diego Union was good: Dan Snook's Antony and Sara Surrey's Cleopatra felt emotionally small, indulgent lovers younger than usual for the parts, not the Mars and Venus upon whom the fate of nations depends.
Surrey's coquettish Cleopatra looks right, with her strong profile, physical stature and lovely way with movement and gesture – and by Act 5, she was Cleopatra, and a grand one.
High on her monument, dressed in ivory and gold, delighting in the bite of the asp that will kill her, this statuesque queen triumphs and transforms, becoming a goddess radiant and assured. Tresnjak then adds an exquisite epilogue in which her handsome younger Antony returns. Strange denizens of the Egyptian court – the eunuch Mardian (Michael Newman, wonderfully weird in drag) and the soothsayer (Bruce Turk, ominous and otherworldly) – row them across Lethe toward an underworld where they can enjoy each other in peace.
A familiar and interesting theme. Were you rooting for Fulvia or Cleopatra? Was Anthony doing a mortal wrong? Your viewpoint may depend more on your adaptation to women's sexuality than the historically based plot. This took place pre-Christian of course. Things were simpler then.
Time to take the OTHER WOMAN'S SURVEY or see what others have said.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home