ANTONY & CLEOPATRA (The Show Must Go Online)****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jjQY9Ce3k

Available until: Forever

Antony & Cleopatra isn’t one of my favourite Shakespeare plays but The Show Must Go Online made it so brilliant! The acting is really good and it was hard to believe everyone was filming in their homes. It felt like they were filming on location. It all felt really exotic and mysterious and it was like it was a different world.

The guest speaker this week is Dr Varsha Panjwani. She is very interesting. One thing she said which really helped me was comparing Cleopatra to the Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Mountbatten-Windsor). I don’t think their personalities are very similar but they are talked about and written about in similar ways. This really helped me to see Cleopatra as more of a human being. I think I saw her as a sort of goddess before. She seems quite mythical even though she was a real person.

Cleopatra is played by Debra Ann Byrd who did a really brilliant introduction to Othello a couple of weeks ago. She looks amazing as Cleopatra. Her acting is brilliant too but the way she looks is all part of it. Not just her hair and her clothes but the way she holds herself and her facial expressions. It made me believe she really is Cleopatra. She is quite haughty and she seems really confident and powerful and scary but there are moments when you see the human being underneath and it is really moving. She looks really beautiful and she has a beautiful voice which makes Shakespeare’s words sound even more beautiful. She is perfect for Cleopatra.

Mark Antony is played by Mark Holden. He has a very powerful physical presence and he seems intelligent and completely in control. The attraction between him and Cleopatra makes sense because they are so similar. They probably haven’t met many people with the same magnificence as they have and I think they recognise it in each other. You can feel their chemistry through the screen even though the actors have probably never met.

Stuart Vincent plays Octavius Caesar and he is another really powerful character. There is something really persuasive about the way he speaks and I expect most people do what he says because he’s not really the sort of person you’d disobey. I don’t think many people could come between Antony and Cleopatra but it’s believable that Mr Vincent can. It is really exciting watching scenes between the three main characters. There is so much tension and drama.

When I watched Antony & Cleopatra before, my favourite character was Charmian. I think I identified with her the most for some reason. Maya Cohen is a really brilliant Charmian. You can see from her make-up, costume and the scenery around her that she has put so much effort into creating her character and I love the way she responds to everything that happens when she is onscreen. She and Rebecca Brough who plays Iras show how much they love Cleopatra throughout, they fan her in a really caring way and when Cleopatra is upset, they are upset too. It made me feel really sad too watching them.

I also really liked Maanuv Thiara as Domitus Enobarbus and Trevor Lin as Mardian. I liked everyone really but I got really invested in Enobarbus’ story. I think he is quite a funny character at first, not LOL funny but very wry but then it seems like he gets more caught up in the story emotionally and I thought Mr Thiara was very moving. I think Mardian is really sweet and funny and Mr Lin has a beautiful voice. Maybe he can come back for The Tempest. There’s lots of singing in that play.

There is a really big ensemble with lots of actors I know from other productions and they are all really good. I can’t mention them all but I especially remember Lisa Hill-Corley and Honey Gabriel because they are so different from their previous roles. Everyone is really talented and versatile.

This production also shows how important the swings are. If you don’t know, swings are like understudies but instead of just covering one or two roles, they cover every role. They would take over if a performer was ill but in livestream Zoom production they also take over if an actor has technical difficulties like losing their internet connection, their battery power or getting thrown out of Zoom. This could obviously happen with no notice. Eugenia Low makes her first appearance not long after the play starts and she is really good. I have seen her on Shake-scene and Sofa Shakespeare so I was hoping I’d get to see her but obviously I was hoping it would be a planned appearance. Swings are brilliant but I don’t want anything bad to happen to the actors who are supposed to be performing.

Michelle Kelly has maybe the best swing cameo ever when she has to take over as Cleopatra for a short time at a really important dramatic moment. It must have been so hard for her to take over a lead role at that point, especially when Ms Byrd is so brilliant but she gives a really good, really emotional performance. I got so into it I forgot she was a swing. I was glad Ms Byrd was back quickly because it is her role and it would have been really sad if she hadn’t been able to come back on Zoom but I really really hope Ms Kelly will be able to perform the whole of Cleopatra’s role sometime because she is really good. It is a really weird feeling to have, being so excited for the swing but so sad that the original actor is missing a bit of their role and being scared they won’t be able to come back but it’s all part of livestream theatre and TMSGO coped with it all brilliantly.