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2001: Antony & Cleopatra

Quenington Old Rectory

Since 1991, the River Garden productions of The Cotswold Arcadians had been set in many different époques - Shakespeare's own period, the 1930s, the 1950s and the late 1980s - but, never until then, had a play been set in BC 42-30 when, of course, the events portrayed in Antony and Cleopatra did in reality take place.

Antony and Cleopatra is perhaps the most quoted of all Shakespeare's plays, and contains a richness and sophistication in text that is not really matched in any of his other works.  It is, moreover, written very 'filmicly' - with short scenes (often of as few as five to ten lines) - a factor which lends itself to rapid pace in story-line development (with which the television and cinema audiences of today can readily identify).

Moreover, the characters portrayed in the play are giants of our common classical heritage.  Whilst Antony and Cleopatra themselves have become bywords for doomed victims of impossible love (providing a poignant re-exploration of the Romeo and Juliet predicament in middle age, and with an equally tragic ending), the towering presence of other characters like Octavius Caesar - destined to become the first Emperor of Rome (Augustus Caesar), and the Emperor who was ruling (appropriately) two thousand years ago - bring to the play an unmistakable reflection of present day political manoeuvring, in which 'affairs of the heart' can (and predictably still do) so often destroy promising careers.

With its large cast (the play, as written, required no fewer than 42 speaking roles - but we combined some of the smaller ones to create more interesting challenges for the actors), as well as its set-piece extravagances, the potential for customary Cotswold Arcadians spectacle was well catered for in Antony and Cleopatra . Moreover, with the full participation of The Ermine Street Guard, audiences were able to experience the awesome ingenuity, manpower, and equipment that gave the Roman Military Machine well-nigh unstoppable momentum.  Moreover, the river craft provided and operated by members of Thames Barge, besides being essential to the plot, also illustrated the skills which were required as a matter of day to day survival around the coasts of the Mediterranean from those days up until the present time.

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