AO3 (ii)

AO3 (ii)

Performances of the play.

REMEMBER - THIS IS A PLAY not a bloody book!!! Thankfully, Shakespeare didn't know that one day his plays would be dissected into joyless, academic assessment objectives; he wrote them to be performed, he wrote them to entertain and put a smile or a tear on the faces of the rowdy Londoners of 400 years ago. Live performances at the Globe would have been much more like a football match in terms of crowd interaction, noise and thrills. 
We're sorry Will - there's beggary in the learning that can be measured! We beg your forgiveness for how the British education system has done its best to squeeze the life out of your art... But the least we can do is write about the play as a play, not as a text.

Having said all that, as mentioned some critics argue the play is ‘well-nigh unstageable.’ Jumping back and forth from Egypt to Rome, the kinetic structure is just too much for some audiences. More than that, most critics tend to find the leading actors simply cannot do justice to Shakespeare’s mythic characters. There is also NO documented staging during Shakespeare’s life.

I need you to look at and research two productions, (although please don’t forget the Trevor Nunn tv production, or any other performance you want to research!):

1.   The1987 Royal National Theatre production of the play directed by Peter Hall, with Anthony Hopkins as Antony and Judi Dench as Cleopatra.

2..    The 1999 Globe production with Mark Rylance as Cleopatra.