Antony and Cleopatra (Vol. 81) | Kristin E. Gandrow (review date 2000)
Kristin E. Gandrow (review date 2000)
SOURCE: Gandrow, Kristin E. Review of Antony and Cleopatra. Theatre Journal 52, no. 1 (2000): 123-25.
[In the following review of director Giles Block's 1999 all-male production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Globe Theatre, Gandrow admires the campy but nuanced performance of Mark Rylance as Cleopatra.]
The all-male casting of Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London asked a contemporary audience to acknowledge and accept the Elizabethan stage convention of men playing women's roles. Could we forget that the Cleopatra we watched was a man? Not completely. Did that matter? Not really, although it overtly emphasized the humor in the play, which perhaps was Shakespeare's intent all along when he wrote this tragicomic role for a boy. Director Giles Block's 1999 production of Antony and Cleopatra cut only ten lines from this epic. It opened after Mark...
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