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A review by tumblyhome_caroline
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
5.0
I very much loved this play. I would go so far as to say it has knocked Macbeth off its pinnacle as my favourite Shakespeare to date.
Anthony and Cleopatra is brilliant, so easy to read and engaging right from the start. It starts as a slightly bawdy, frivolous game between Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. But becomes more and more complex as the story unfolds and the two have to balance their own lives and desires with that of the politics of countries and whole Empires. A very conflicted pair, that somehow could not shake off their connection despite all. I loved that both Anthony and Cleopatra were complicated people, I think Shakespeare portrays human foibles and follies so well. His characters walk off the page.
Cleopatra must be the best female character in all of Shakespeare. I liked her even better than Lady Macbeth, and I thought she was tremendous. The whole play can make you laugh, get cross, leave you flabbergasted, cry, throw up your hands in despair and cry again.
I really loved the characters of both Anthony and Cleopatra. I think I am more sympathetic of Anthony, than I might have expected. I often find more modern songs that become very firmly connected in my mind with these plays. With this one Anthony sings ‘watching the wheels’ by John Lennon. He has been great, he has lived an inflated life based on his past glories and just wants to let go and find release from the chains of his own making. But how hard is that to do, when people watch in judgement and no one more so than himself.
I love Cleopatra too. She is flawed and difficult to entirely like but I can’t help but like her. She is spirited, rude, funny and complex. I like it that she speaks of catching fish and reeling them in..hahaha ‘Anthony, gotcha’ but then all that bravado shatters when the poor messenger tells her Anthony is married. I really love that hilarious scene in Act 2 scene 5. Funny as it is though, it is also very painful because Cleopatra is covering such shock and misery in anger. I almost feel guilty for laughing. (Any actor who plays the messenger has an utterly fun part) Cleopatra is a fantastic character. I am not like her personally but I can feel her moods and passions so acutely. She feels familiar, she is complicated and so human.
I love how the play is funny and very bawdy but just when you are laughing the hardest is makes you swallow your laughing and realise the world is not a joke after all.
As to whether Anthony and Cleopatra truly love each other… what a tough one. I think more that they needed each other so badly as a release valve from their public lives and all the heavy requirements of that. .. it was all hedonistic pleasure but gradually they came to know and love each other more deeply when things took a more threatening turn. They needed each other because they understood each other and they knew and understood themselves through the other too. They were like a drug for each other. So I do think they love each other but it isn’t like a traditional courtship, it is almost a guilty, addicted love. What a brilliant relationship between two people has been written here.
Anthony and Cleopatra is brilliant, so easy to read and engaging right from the start. It starts as a slightly bawdy, frivolous game between Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. But becomes more and more complex as the story unfolds and the two have to balance their own lives and desires with that of the politics of countries and whole Empires. A very conflicted pair, that somehow could not shake off their connection despite all. I loved that both Anthony and Cleopatra were complicated people, I think Shakespeare portrays human foibles and follies so well. His characters walk off the page.
Cleopatra must be the best female character in all of Shakespeare. I liked her even better than Lady Macbeth, and I thought she was tremendous. The whole play can make you laugh, get cross, leave you flabbergasted, cry, throw up your hands in despair and cry again.
I really loved the characters of both Anthony and Cleopatra. I think I am more sympathetic of Anthony, than I might have expected. I often find more modern songs that become very firmly connected in my mind with these plays. With this one Anthony sings ‘watching the wheels’ by John Lennon. He has been great, he has lived an inflated life based on his past glories and just wants to let go and find release from the chains of his own making. But how hard is that to do, when people watch in judgement and no one more so than himself.
I love Cleopatra too. She is flawed and difficult to entirely like but I can’t help but like her. She is spirited, rude, funny and complex. I like it that she speaks of catching fish and reeling them in..hahaha ‘Anthony, gotcha’ but then all that bravado shatters when the poor messenger tells her Anthony is married. I really love that hilarious scene in Act 2 scene 5. Funny as it is though, it is also very painful because Cleopatra is covering such shock and misery in anger. I almost feel guilty for laughing. (Any actor who plays the messenger has an utterly fun part) Cleopatra is a fantastic character. I am not like her personally but I can feel her moods and passions so acutely. She feels familiar, she is complicated and so human.
I love how the play is funny and very bawdy but just when you are laughing the hardest is makes you swallow your laughing and realise the world is not a joke after all.
As to whether Anthony and Cleopatra truly love each other… what a tough one. I think more that they needed each other so badly as a release valve from their public lives and all the heavy requirements of that. .. it was all hedonistic pleasure but gradually they came to know and love each other more deeply when things took a more threatening turn. They needed each other because they understood each other and they knew and understood themselves through the other too. They were like a drug for each other. So I do think they love each other but it isn’t like a traditional courtship, it is almost a guilty, addicted love. What a brilliant relationship between two people has been written here.