Antony and Cleopatra (RSC)

I find the play too long myself, and that it doesn't know what it wants to be. A romantic tragedy or a political play. My favorite production though would be the Jonathan Munby version at the Globe, with Eve Best and Clive Wood.

Damn it, the Roman Season should have been a breath of fresh air from Gregory Doran's recent uninspired direction, but I'm already half way through this and I'd swear this has his hand all over this.

I've seen some creative work from Angus Jackson (Don Quixote, King Lear with Frank Langella) and Iqbal Khan (Othello, Much ado about nothing), and yet none of that comes through in Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.

God I hate to think what Blanche McIntyre and David Troughton's Titus Andronicus is going to be like.

Going up to watch the main house productions in Stratford seems less and less appetizing each year. Except the Swan productions remain the most creative and interesting, and a trip to the archive during the day means that I get to see some fabulous productions from days gone by. This week has included two Twelfth Nights (1983 with Zoe Wanamaker, 1994 with Desmond Barrit), the 2001 Romeo and Juliet with David Tennant, 1988 Richard III with Anton Lesser, and even bits of Les Miserables back in 1985 at the Barbican. The roman season so far doesn't even hold a candle to those productions.

David J seems to sum up my feelings......it is as though Greg's overall bland and costume approach infects the whole.There must be a set of guidelines laid out for directors/designers to follow.Its easy to moan about RSC but I really am feeling angry that a company that should be leading the way in innovative readings of the plays has fallen so far into the bland and uninteresting.Much preaching about education...about access.....about how great they are but not reflected on stages at all.A little mischief in TOP but who wants mischief.....please RSC examine how Shakespeare is being rethought everywhere and start hooking the most exciting directors who dare to be brave and,yes,may be better than Mr D. As I said I am now feeling angry at continually finding trips to RSC dull even.....worthy.

There were reasons for that. One was Rickman took the role at very short notice. The other was the director was almost bullied into doing it because they could find literally no one else to direct it.

It is interesting that Simon Godwin's RSC debut a few years ago with Two Gents was very highly praised and reviewed and then the next thing we know he's the NT's house Shakespeare director (Twelfth Night, A&C), one wonders why exactly Doran failed (or didn't try) to retain him at the RSC.

Yes I had forgotten that. Maybe significant that neither of his productions got a London transfer despite being highly praised.

It is very odd that two different directors have started the Roman season with plays directed in the Doran style. I assume Doran specified the staging concept in advance (as he did for the Much Ado/Loves Labours productions).

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Maybe indeed. I dont know these books at all so havent booked. He is clearly hoping for a Wolf Hall style hit. Hmmmm

I remember with some fondness the Chichester transfer of the Liverpool production which, thanks to a strong Cleopatra and Octavius (and a horrendously old-fashioned declamatory Antony), really amped up in quality once the old bore popped his clogs. It is a very strange play though, Cleopatra is Shakespeare's largest female part and she lives an entire act longer than Antony, yet he STILL has more lines than she does. And he really is a crushing bore in the wrong hands.

OK first things first this isn't a bad production it's just not a great one, and I agree with reviewers saying Caesar is better.

It doesn't look cheap or under rehearsed or anything it just drags and Josette Simon's 'accent' is plain annoying, at first I thought she might have been taking her cue from the line about squeaking Cleopatras playing their story but then discounted it not long after..

The shared set works well in both and some nice touches such as the statue so prominent in Caesar is used again albeit smaller.

Best performance for me is Octavius Caesar who is quieter and more subdued than some I've seen but all the better for it. Music is fantastic too, so different from the normal RSC fare.

First off, good set if a bit retro like a set you might have seen at the old theatre, nice ships, columns and upsy downsy, lighting and costume and music by Laura Mvula. There are no naked knobbly knees and Cleo's wardrobe is v effective. Secondly, it doesn't meander on. After the shambles that Antony's suicide becomes, we get the brilliantly staged and efficient death of Cleo who outsmarts Octavius. The end of this play is one of Shakespeaere's masterpiece set pieces..
I enjoyed this, the pace didn't flag and it was clear in the storytelling. One detail was lacking for me: the suggestion that Antony marry Octavia is a put up job and here it wasn't suggested. Otherwise some lovely details and as said above a convincing Enobarbus and I liked Octavius and Agrippa. Ant and Cleo probably one of the best pairings I've seen. Maybe I've missed the best or it is yet to come. I think this is a difficult play to get right.

One thing I would like to mention: we get a very brief glimpse of a naked Cleo as she robes for her death, all v tasteful and I have no objection as long as the actor is happy. But in the opening scenes in the Roman bath house we have men in towels. Excuse me? I don't think Roman men had a problem with nakedness in their bath houses and it was an opportunity to do something, ahem, with the character of Octavius. So why the naked Cleo and why not the naked anyone else? Espesh as Octavius looked, from what I could see, that he had spent time in the gym and had something to show us. Ahem again.

I've booked cheap tickets for this and Caesar when they move to the Barbican.

Has to be third time lucky surely after suffering the Rickman-Mirren debacle at the NT and Alan Bates' appalling Antony with Frances de La Tour's excellent Cleo years ago at the RSC.

I can't remember how realistic it looked but