If you’re one of those who think there’s too much sex and violence
on TV — and wish there were more of that stuff onstage —
then rustle up a lawn chair and start the car. The Cleveland
Shakespeare Festival’s production of old Will’s Antony and
Cleopatra, soon to play a free-of-charge open-air venue near you,
is a feast of bloodlust and libido.
And while some of the production’s elements ring a bit false or
forced, director Alison Garrigan keeps this potboiler bubbling for a
full two hours of nonstop gripping, groping and power-grabbing. Along
the way, you get a pretty good sense of how political leverage was
shifting in ancient Rome, not to mention in one boudoir in
Alexandria.
Anyone who saw the stunning HBO mini-series Rome a couple of
years ago is aware that Marc Antony and Cleopatra were an item —
an earth-shaking one at that. This is a grand sweep of a play, abundant
with glorious rhythms and poetry. So it was unfortunate that the
opening-night performance was forced indoors by bad weather. Many of
the actors, used to using their outside voices, tended to overpower the
confined space.
The good news is that this effort is built on the solid foundation
of Carly Germany as Cleopatra and Brian Pedaci as Antony. Germany is a
sensual firestorm — a genuine force of nature — and
Pedaci’s Antony, dressed in goth-biker gear, is almost her match. Their
lip-lock scenes can definitely raise the temp, no matter how warm it is
outside.
In an attempt to imbue Cleo’s world with a sense of free-floating
kinky sexuality, Garrigan has the queen’s attendants Charmian (Liz
Jones) and Iras (Hannah Storch) stroke each other incessantly. Trouble
is, their mutual fondling is so mechanical and constant, it soon loses
any erotic component and feels more like a weird instructional video
for obsessive-compulsive massage therapists.
Larry Seman as Lepidus, Dusten Welch as Octavius Caesar (when he
isn’t rushing his lines) and Nathan Miller as a punk Pompey turn in
strong supporting performances. By costuming the Caesar crowd in suits
and ties and the Antony/Cleo cohort in black lace and leather, Garrigan
and costumer Brenna Connor keep the adversaries straight and the plot
in focus right up to the tragic, um, climax.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2009.
