by William Shakespeare
directed by Yvonne Brewster
The Bloomsbury Theatre, London
The Merseyside Theatre, Liverpool
16 May - 15 June 1991
Notes by Director
When this production was first planned, war had not yet been declared on the Iraqis. By the time we came to work on this glorious text we, as an all black company, could not escape some of the indelible images of this most recent of wars.....appropriation, greed, colonisation, black oil, black foot soldier fighting black foot soldier............
The history of colonisation is as old as history. The Ancient Egyptian dynasty, founded initially in 3100BC by King Menes, first felt the cold grip of an outside colonising hand in 945 BC when Sheshonk I of Libya seized the Egyptian throne. For the next thousand years or so Egupt was host to a number of conquerors, including the Persians (now the Iranians) the Assyrians (now the Iraqis) and the Macedonians (now the Greeks). Shakespeare's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA is set at the very end of the Greek era when the bulging coffers of Egypt were too attractive a prize for the World - conquering Romans to resist. Antony, the "greatest soldier in the world" is dispatched to Egypt to bring Queen Cleopatra VII to heel but instead falls under her spell. He loses his objectivity, his control and is haunted by the taunts of loss of honour, dereliction of duty, and lasciviousness from ice cold Caesar in far off Rome.
Cleopatra on the other hand, is a wily, mercurial Queen Administrator whose infinite variety had, in the past, efficiently manipulated the Romans - especially Julius Caesar who had in fact put her on the throne in 47 BC. However, she now falls prey to this most unroman of Romans, to his generosity of spirit and his ability to laugh. Therein lies the tragedy.
This is an ultimate play. The battles are all offstage and the crucial scenes often take place between a small number of characters. However, as there are some 43 named parts, not to mention numerous ladies, servants, eunuchs, soldiers, captains, and officers, this has meant that what we have come to call "amalgamations" of similar characters, have played a major part in one's thinking. Thus Eros, who commits suicide for the love of Antony, is also the messenger who brings tidings of his marriage in Rome to Cleopatra and so on.
Theatre must always seek to serve its community and, in striving to do so. Continuity is all-important. Talawa is therefore delighted to be back once again at the Everyman where we were given such a warm welcome with THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME, and the Bloomsbury which holds such great memories for us with THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.
