This book writes a performance history of Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's most ambiguous play, from 1606 to the present. It observes the choices that actors, directors, designers, musicians and adapters have made each time they have brought the play's thoughts on power, race, masculinity, regime change, exoticism, love, dotage and delinquency into alignment with a new present. Informed by close attention to theatre records - promptbooks, stage managers' reports, reviews - it offers in-depth analyses of fifteen international productions by (among others) the Royal Shakespeare Company, Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Northern Broadsides, Berliner Ensemble and Toneelgroep Amsterdam. It ends seeing Shakespeare's black Egyptian Queen Cleopatra - whited-out in performance for centuries - restored to the contemporary stage. Written in a lively and accessible style, this book will be of interest to students, academics, actors, directors and general readers alike.
- ISBN10 1526132494
- ISBN13 9781526132499
- Publish Date 14 July 2020
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Manchester University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 344
- Language English