Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare's Globe

Reviewed by Max Swinnerton

Last Friday, the U8 English cohort went on a trip to watch the latest production at The Globe: Antony and Cleopatra. Having studied the text in the Lower Eighth we were excited to be able to finally see Shakespeare’s words delivered onstage, and gain some extra A03* marks that had been lacking throughout the previous year. However, as we made the pilgrimage into the city, the group learned that this would be no ordinary production: the play was bilingual. The Roman characters would perform the original English and the Egyptians would act in British Sign Language. Even after Ms McLaughlin told us that we had standing tickets, and after reading a review by Time Out magazine which described it as ‘cumbersome’, we were ready to go in with an open mind. However, having now watched it and having had a week to digest, it’s safe to say the message behind the production fell flat.

My initial problem was that the staging seemed bizarre. The Globe stage was draped in blue fabric and they had mounted a large circular screen on the back wall, as well as various TV screens about the theatre. When the play began, the screens began displaying the text whilst the Egyptian actors signed on stage. I am not sure whether the sign-acting was good or not because, as I was standing, my view of the stage was obstructed by a large pillar. 

When John Hollingworth’s Antony entered the stage and began to speak, my second issue came to light. Although I admire the bravery of The Globe for its innovation, and recognise the importance of hearing-impaired actors being given leading roles on stage, the delivery of this idea was extremely stilted. Having to switch between reading the text off a screen and watching what was on the stage (albeit with a serious obstruction) took me out of the theatrical world, making the play harder to follow. At the end of the first scene a couple standing next to me made the wise choice of leaving to do something else; we did not have that luxury.

Shortly afterwards, I moved to a more optimal position in order to try and better see the action on stage. The signing was generally not a hindrance to the acting itself—in fact, I thought all of the Egyptian actors were good—but it was the constant switching to the screen that made this change utterly ineffective. As the play dragged on I became increasingly frustrated by the stilted viewing experience. This was made worse by the fact that actors playing minor roles were multi-tasking between Roman and Egyptian characters, which made everything even more confusing. The various battles throughout the play were unwatchable as actors were dancing around with wolves’ heads on sticks, to the bemusement of the audience which now consisted almost entirely of schoolchildren and their teachers, as various independent theatregoers had left. These scenes were particularly scarring.

However, there were certain elements that were not entirely agonising. The scenes which took place entirely in Rome or Egypt, and therefore entirely in one language were far more tolerable, and I thought that Daniel Millar’s Enobarbus was a particular highlight. Acts 4 and 5 of the play were marginally better, and I thought that Nadia Nadarajah’s portrayal of Cleopatra’s death scene was particularly moving. My absolute favourite aspect of the play was the live music: a brass quartet which played some excellent accompaniments.

Overall, I would recommend this production to only the most committed masochists and Shakespeare completists—and if you do choose to go, I would strongly recommend you purchase a seated ticket.

Many thanks to Max for contributing his thoughts on the production, which has now finished its run, so, sadly, it's too late for you to go and find out whether or not you agree with him.  However, if you're curious to see what this innovative and conceptually intriguing production looked like, from a point of view NOT stuck behind a pillar, you can watch the Globe's trailer for it here.  You can also find out more about the challenges of and rationale behind the production on the Globe's blog here.  

 
*AO3: 'Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received' (© English Literature A Level mark-scheme)