ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Wed 4 - Sat 7 December 1996
Studio Theatre, Northampton College, Booth Lane, Northampton

Photo gallery

Live snakes and fire eaters bring Shakespeare to life next week at the Northampton College Arts Centre.

Masque Theatre, renowned for their summer show park Shakespeare’s, make sure the Egyptian court hots up in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.

Reptile expert Jennifer Gregory will be bringing in the asp that Cleopatra uses to poison herself. Don’t worry though, there’s no cause for alarm as Jennifer’s snakes aren’t poisonous.

Modern Roman Antony, played by Vince Perry, should be making a dramatic entry on a Lambretta.

The Italian theme is continued with the arrival of Caesar. With his two menacing henchmen he looks like a latter day Godfather.

Proud Antony and Cleopatra revel in being greater than anyone else in the world. Their tragic fall touches on the comic when they want just one more laugh.

Director, Rob Kendall, sees modern day parallels in the pair’s struggle to chose between pleasure or duty.

This promises to be a fast and action packed production and the first time the play has been performed in the town, by either amateur or professional company.

You can see Masque Theatre’s production of Antony and Cleopatra from Wednesday, December 4 ,until Saturday, December 7. Shows start at 7.45pm at the Northampton College Arts Centre.

Antony and Cleopatra was written in 1607 or possibly earlier and is one of Shakespeare’s later plays.

To some it is a kind of "grown up" Romeo and Juliet where the whole world seems to be against the love match between the title roles. However there is far more to it than that, and their demise is brought about by their need to be powerful individuals in their own right but still want just "one gaudy night" more.

When the play was first collected in a folio edition it was called a tragedy, but whether in reality it is in dramatic terms is open to question.

lt is true that both die and neither seems able to extricate themselves from their separate but inevitable end, but is is really a clash more of the worlds of Egypt and Rome. The heat and passion of one with the tepid warmth and business acumen of Rome and, of course Caesar.

There is comic pathos, irony and tragedy but they are all interfused and the passion of Antony and Cleopatra’s lives reflects the hurly burly of the play with its short scenes and pace. As Cleopatra says of Antony when hauling him up to the monument in the last act: ”Here’s sport indeed"!