It was unfortunate that before seeing this production, quite a few members of the American Theater Critics Association, being hosted by The Shakespeare Theater Company, were required to listen to a lengthy canonization of STC founder/artistic director Michael Kahn, followed by Kahn's wordy acceptance of the nomination and expansion of details of his accomplishments. Kahn directed this Antony and Cleopatra, and it turned out to be a chore to sit through.
It should be noted that Shakespeare's play is a frighteningly ambitious undertaking: a long, complex, poetic drama centering on two iconic characters so fabled that audiences resist most impersonations of them, in a story and setting that require a huge cast of gifted actors and truly opulent decor. The beauty of the Queen, the dazzling splendor of her court, her retinue, her dress, and her banquets are all described in the dialogue with Shakespearean poetic excess such that a presentation looking cheap or ordinary would evoke disdainful laughter -- and has!.
This production, forgettable costumes aside, looked sizable and reasonably impressive in design, had a large, fairly well-spoken cast which included a few very experienced and gifted actors, and boasted attractive original music by Martin Desjardins and often strikingly effective lighting by Mark McCullough, as well as several exciting stage fights by Rick Sordelet. The problem was the overall lackluster pacing and staging, and the Anthony and Cleopatra.
Kurt Rhoads' Anthony was occasionally tentative but generally commanding, heroic and dynamic, if not especially moving. Since Mr. Rhoads had just stepped into the role a couple of days before I saw him, I can offer little but praise. Suzanne Bertish, on the other hand, despite what looks like a respectable resume, displayed no evidence of being capable of playing Shakespeare, much less his Cleopatra. Her delivery was strident and verged on the comic. Her bewildering and excessive gestures conveyed no meaning and seemed to indicate some serious mental disorder. And some of her death scene did cause laughter.
Other than indicating a bright future for some appealing young actors, the only truly emotionally involving moments of the play seemed an indictment of the uninvolving moments that crucially must move an audience, and didn't.
Kaytie Morris, as Octavia, when her brother Octavius Caesar (effectively played by young Aubrey K. Deeker) finally makes her realize that Antony has betrayed her and returned to Cleopatra, was so starkly horrified and crushed that she made the scene memorable. And in another brief moment, young John-Michael Marrs was unusually heartbreaking as his Eros, commanded to hold the sword for Antony to fall on, stabs himself to death instead, explaining as he dies that he could not bear to live to see his beloved Anthony dead. Disproportionately, Anthony's death seemed much less tragic, and Cleopatra's death merely seemed to be overdue.
The Shakespeare Company in our nation's capital city is an arts center worthy of acclaim and support. It was most unfortunate that this Antony and Cleopatra was the production we saw to represent it.
