Antony and Cleopatra

This book writes a performance history of <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> 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.