Antony and Cleopatra
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
Mark Antony – one of the triumvirs of the Roman Republic, along with Octavius and Lepidus – has neglected his soldierly duties after being beguiled by Egypt's Queen, Cleopatra. He ignores Rome's domestic problems, including the fact that his third wife Fulvia rebelled against Octavius and then died.
Octavius calls Antony back to Rome from Alexandria to help him fight against Sextus Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas, three notorious pirates of the Mediterranean. At Alexandria, Cleopatra begs Antony not to go, and though he repeatedly affirms his deep passionate love for her, he eventually leaves.
The triumvirs meet in Rome, where Antony and Octavius put to rest, for now, their disagreements. Octavius' general, Agrippa, suggests that Antony should marry Octavius's sister, Octavia, in order to cement the friendly bond between the two men. Antony accepts. Antony's lieutenant Enobarbus, though, knows that Octavia can never satisfy him after Cleopatra. In a famous passage, he describes Cleopatra's charms: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety: other women cloy / The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry / Where most she satisfies."
A soothsayer warns Antony that he is sure to lose if he ever tries to fight Octavius.
In Egypt, Cleopatra learns of Antony's marriage to Octavia and takes furious revenge upon the messenger that brings her the news. She grows content only when her courtiers assure her that Octavia is homely: short, low-browed, round-faced and with bad hair.
Before battle, the triumvirs parley with Sextus Pompey, and offer him a truce. He can retain Sicily and Sardinia, but he must help them "rid the sea of pirates" and send them tributes. After some hesitation Sextus agrees. They engage in a drunken celebration on Sextus' galley, though the austere Octavius leaves early and sober from the party. Menas suggests to Sextus that he kill the three triumvirs and make himself ruler of the Roman Republic, but he refuses, finding it dishonourable. After Antony departs Rome for Athens, Octavius and Lepidus break their truce with Sextus and war against him. This is unapproved by Antony, and he is furious.
Antony returns to Alexandria and crowns Cleopatra and himself as rulers of Egypt and the eastern third of the Roman Republic (which was Antony's share as one of the triumvirs). He accuses Octavius of not giving him his fair share of Sextus' lands, and is angry that Lepidus, whom Octavius has imprisoned, is out of the triumvirate. Octavius agrees to the former demand, but otherwise is very displeased with what Antony has done.
Antony prepares to battle Octavius. Enobarbus urges Antony to fight on land, where he has the advantage, instead of by sea, where the navy of Octavius is lighter, more mobile and better manned. Antony refuses, since Octavius has dared him to fight at sea. Cleopatra pledges her fleet to aid Antony. However, during the Battle of Actium off the western coast of Greece, Cleopatra flees with her sixty ships, and Antony follows her, leaving his forces to ruin. Ashamed of what he has done for the love of Cleopatra, Antony reproaches her for making him a coward, but also sets this true and deep love above all else, saying "Give me a kiss; even this repays me."
Octavius sends a messenger to ask Cleopatra to give up Antony and come over to his side. She hesitates, and flirts with the messenger, when Antony walks in and angrily denounces her behavior. He sends the messenger to be whipped. Eventually, he forgives Cleopatra and pledges to fight another battle for her, this time on land.
On the eve of the battle, Antony's soldiers hear strange portents, which they interpret as the god Hercules abandoning his protection of Antony. Furthermore, Enobarbus, Antony's long-serving lieutenant, deserts him and goes over to Octavius' side. Rather than confiscating Enobarbus' goods, which Enobarbus did not take with him when he fled, Antony orders them to be sent to Enobarbus. Enobarbus is so overwhelmed by Antony's generosity, and so ashamed of his own disloyalty, that he dies from a broken heart.
Antony loses the battle as his troops desert en masse and he denounces Cleopatra: "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me." He resolves to kill her for the treachery. Cleopatra decides that the only way to win back Antony's love is to send him word that she killed herself, dying with his name on her lips. She locks herself in her monument, and awaits Antony's return.
Her plan fails: rather than rushing back in remorse to see the "dead" Cleopatra, Antony decides that his own life is no longer worth living. He begs one of his aides, Eros, to run him through with a sword, but Eros cannot bear to do it and kills himself. Antony admires Eros' courage and attempts to do the same, but only succeeds in wounding himself. In great pain, he learns that Cleopatra is indeed alive. He is hoisted up to her in her monument and dies in her arms.
Octavius goes to Cleopatra trying to persuade her to surrender. She angrily refuses since she can imagine nothing worse than being led in chains through the streets of Rome, proclaimed a villain for the ages. She imagines that "the quick comedians / Extemporally will stage us, and present / Our Alexandrian revels: Antony / Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see / Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness / I' th' posture of a whore." This speech is full of dramatic irony, because in Shakespeare's time Cleopatra really was played by a "squeaking boy" and Shakespeare's play does depict Antony's drunken revels.
Cleopatra is betrayed and taken into custody by the Romans. She gives Octavius what she claims is a complete account of her wealth but is betrayed by her treasurer, who claims she is holding treasure back. Octavius reassures her that he is not interested in her wealth, but Dolabella warns her that he intends to parade her at his triumph.
Cleopatra kills herself using the poison of an asp. She dies calmly and ecstatically, imagining how she will meet Antony again in the afterlife. Her serving maids, Iras and Charmian, die also, with Iras dying from heartbreak and Charmian killing herself with another asp. Octavius discovers the dead bodies and experiences conflicting emotions. Antony's and Cleopatra's deaths leave him free to become the first Roman Emperor, but he also feels some kind of sympathy for them: "She shall be buried by her Antony. / No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous..." He orders a public military funeral.

Review: Disappointing.
Although there are good performances by Lynn Redgrave, Timothy Dalton, Barrie Ingham & Earl Boen, on the other hand you have Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer from "General Hospital") dreadful as Caesar & Walter Koenig (Chekhov from "Star Trek") mangling Pompey the pirate.
And the blonde bimbo playing Octavia is bland & unemotional.
They don't belong in a Shakespeare play & should keep their day jobs!
Nichelle Nichols does OK as Charmian.
Costumes are adequate, but camera editing is not very smooth.
Also missing is some strong passion or chemistry between the 2 leads.
Saw this tonight on public TV.
This is a play that Kenneth Branagh should consider directing for the big screen & casting himself as Antony....
Overall Not Bad..
Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave offer fine work in this adaptation of Shakespeare's Drama.Although production values for this live on tape adaptation are below par the acting for the most part is fine.
Barrie Ingham as Enobarbus offers the finest performance in the play.
Always a strong character actor this (along with Pellinore in "Camelot"(1982))is one of his most brilliant portrayals.
Walter Koenig also scores as the rebelious Pompey,showing for the first time that he is a much better actor than "Star Trek" allowed.
some of the supporting players are dreadful however.In particular Anthony Geary as Octavius Ceasar.
Why they cast this man in Shakespeare is beyond me.
Overall its a decent adaptation of a play that deserves a more detailed treatment..
Disappointing adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy.
I will admit I was disappointed with this film adaptation, when I watched it as I am studying Antony and Cleoptra for English at school.
Though to be fair, Antony and Cleopatra is a very complicated play, but for me despite some good moments, this didn't work for me.
It is faithful to Shakespeare's play, however there were some scenes that just fell flat; Antony and Cleopatra's reconciliation came across as unintentionally funny rather than heart-rending, and the whipping of the messenger Thydias could have been such an effective scene, sadly it wasn't.
The sets and costumes weren't lavish enough, Cleopatra's dresses were nice to look at, if rather simple, but Antony looked as though he was a poor person for most of the production, and Octavious Caesar's costumes just didn't show off his character.
And the sets looked rather amateurish for my liking.
The performances were variable.
I wasn't fond of Timothy Dalton as Antony, he looked the part, but I didn't feel his heart was in it, and when Antony loses his dignity and honour, I felt Dalton overdid it here.
Aquitting herself much better is Lynn Redgrave as Cleopatra, true I didn't think she was vivacious enough, but she did have some excellent delivery, and mostly she was bang on target with her character.
Sadly, most of her scenes weren't as effective as they could have been, but that wasn't Redgrave's fault, the maids were very static, and throughout I found the direction unusually sluggish.
The worst performance was easily Antony Geary as Caesar, he wasn't right for the part at all.
Ceasar is cold, calculating and authoritative, and Geary as far as I was concerned didn't do any of those things in his performance, and I found Sharon Barr bland as Octavia.
Barrie Ingham however was superb as Enobarbus, he brought a sense of loyalty and poignancy to his part, and that was highly appreciative.
Walter Koenig relishes his role as Pompey.
Finally, the camera work was okay, a little rough in places.
Overall, disappointing.
The version with Janet Suzman was better.
5/10 Bethany Cox. How true to Shakespeare is it?.
About 29 minutes into the second tape, the video play deviated from the written play somewhat.
For the video compared to 4:14:119, 4:14:121, and 4:14:133, Antony calls not Diomed but another name--probably Sileucus.
Also the actor of Sileucus was used, so it seems that this "error" was more than just mis-speaking by Timothy Dolton.
I found this alteration peculiar as well as distracting.
The change in the video play shook my confidence in an otherwise impressive performance.
We think that....
...this was absolutely the worst Shakespearean production ever created on the face of the planet.
Enobarbus talks like he is drunk and Cleopatra looks cheap and does not fit the part of the beautiful queen of Egypt because she is not!
I would rather watch paint dry or perhaps watch grass grow than see this movie.
Timothy Dalton's Antony wears 1950's bomber jackets and looks like he's constantly ready to fight a duel on stage.
Caesar highly resembles Richard Simmons and does not look a thing like royalty.
I was waiting throughout the entire film for him to break out into a rousing round of "Shake Your Booty".
The costumes, props, scenery, and camera work was absolutely vomit-inducing, and this comment is coming from a group of high school students, who in their short lives have seen more entertaining Kindergarten graduations.
It is no surprise that we are only the second commentators on this movie.
We imagine that construction workers can read Shakespeare better than these so-called "actors".
The "actors" lack everything from acting abilities, articulation, and passion for the beautiful poetry that should have been expressed in this film.This movie was supposed to be a complex love between two people, but Antony could not even look Cleopatra in the eye, let alone try and persuade us that they "love" each other.
Antony had no rhythm whatsoever.
He looked like he was ready to pounce on something.
A quadraplegic amputee has more flow in their actions than these "actors".We doubt anyone wanted to waste their time to critique this movie.
However, we were just so angry that Shakespeare has been disgraced by this freak of nature that people actually dare call a "film".
Our teacher should be refunded the $80 he spent on this monstrosity.
Not that we're bitter.