Globe Education Online

L-R: Mark Antony (Nicholas Jones) and Cleopatra (Frances Barber). Photo: John Haynes

directed by Dominic Dromgoole

Out of the turmoil following the death of Julius Caesar, a new status quo has emerged, the tripartite leadership of Antony, Lepidus and Octavius. Threatened by the forces of Pompey, the three rulers need to present a united front, but Antony, the great soldier and once lieutenant to Caesar himself, has been bewildered by Cleopatra, the alluring and ambiguous Queen of Egypt. When he quarrels with his fellow leaders and throws in his lot with Cleopatra, Antony's infatuation threatens to split the Roman Empire in two. 

Roman virtue and Eastern vice; past glamour and present squalor; transfiguration and realpolitik: Antony and Cleopatra exposes the irreconcilable demands of sex and power, public and private life. And in the services of this great middle-aged love story, Shakespeare created a tragic poetry of breathtaking beauty and maginificence.

  Creative Team

Director: Dominic Dromgoole
Designer: Mike Britton
Composer (instrumental music): Keith McGowan
Composer (vocal music): Belinda Sykes
Fight Director: Renny Krupinski
Choreographer: Siân Williams

 Cast

Frances Barber – Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt
Nicholas Jones – Marc Antony
Jack Laskey – Octavius Caesar
John Bett – Lepidus/A schoolmaster, Antony’s Ambassador
Tom Stuart – Demetrius/Decretas/Candidius
David Hinton – Philo/Proculeius
Fred Ridgeway – Domitus Enobarbus
William Mannering – Eros
Peter Hamilton Dyer – Scarus/Menas/Proculeius/A soothsayer
Tas Emiabata – Maecenas
Patrick Brennan – Agrippa
Oliver Boot – Dolabella/Sextus Pompey
Nick Danan – Thidias/Menecrates
Frances Thorburn – Charmian
Rhiannon Oliver – Iras
Simon Müller – Alexas/Diomedes
Paul Lloyd – Mardian/Seleucus
Pascale Burgess – Octavia
Nick Danan, Simon Müller, David Hinton, Paul Lloyd, Tom Stuart – Guards, soldiers, messengers

Discover the Play

• Discover the actors' experiences making the production in Adopt An Actor:

- Tas Emiabata as Maecenas
- Jack Laskey as Ocatvius Caesar
- Frances Thornburn as Charmian

Antony and Cleopatra was performed in 2006, as part of the Edges of Rome Season