ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

At Bard on the Beach until Sept. 24

Tickets: 604.739-0559

www.bardonthebeach.org

Enrolled in English 200 a very long time ago, I wrote a paper on Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra proclaiming, as only a silly 18-year-old can, that Antony and Cleopatra were not great lovers but were an extremely canny pair of political strategists determined to rule the Eastern Mediterranean. Now that I'm older, I'm not so sure. Without a doubt Jennifer Lines (as Cleopatra) and Andrew Wheeler (Antony) make it look like love--or something akin to love.

If you've forgotten what happened after Brutus and cohorts assassinated Julius Caesar, be sure to read the synopsis before the curtain rises. Director Scott Bellis is correct when he writes, "It's a big play."

A thumbnail sketch: After Julius Caesar, a triumvirate ruled Rome and its vast empire--Octavius Caesar (soberly play by Haig Sutherland), Lepidus (Allan Morgan) and Mark Antony. There were double and triple-crosses, betrayals and mistaken betrayals. The Roman and Egyptian troops were sometimes on the same side, sometimes not. Like the historical characters, you have to keep your wits about you to stay abreast of events.

Sir Thomas North's translation (in 1579) of Plutarch's "Life of Marcus Antonius" (circa 1st century AD) is Shakespeare's source. According to Plutarch, noble Antony's obsession with the conniving queen of Egypt caused his downfall. While Cleopatra's death was unfortunate, Antony's death, claims Plutarch, was truly tragic.

Some scholars even suggest that a systematic campaign had been waged by Octavius against Cleopatra to disparage Antony who was becoming a problem. On the other hand, Cleopatra was, indeed, wily; she had been mistress to Julius Caesar (bearing him a son) and after Caesar's death, Antony's mistress (bearing him three children). Shakespeare, however, is more sympathetic than Plutarch to this famous queen.

Lines brings everything she has to this Cleopatra: she's playful, sexy, wild with jealousy, grief-stricken, haughty, frightened, queenly and childish. Simply but elegantly costumed by Mara Gottler in shimmery gold, Lines is more beautiful than the historical Cleopatra, who, according to Plutarch, was not so handsome as she was intelligent and seductive.

Wheeler's Antony, too, is a complicated character--one minute furious with Cleopatra, another minute, utterly besotted by her. Together, Lines and Wheeler hold this epic play together and deliver a living, breathing vision of a man and a woman who risk everything and lose. There are moments when waves of sensuality, like a hot wind, seem to envelope them.

Director Bellis, making his Bard directorial debut, capably manages this large cast.

Battle scenes on land and at sea are stylized with Roman and Egyptian banners hoisted aloft; Cleopatra lounges on a bed of silken cushions surrounded by slaves while the Roman scenes are characterized by soldiers in leather and metal.

Simon Bradbury, so funny as Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, is one of the more affecting characters in the role of Antony's friend Enobarbus. But Antony and Cleopatra is almost exclusively the Antony and Cleopatra show. Few of the other characters engage us in their own particular narratives for very long.

It is always interesting, however, to look at Octavius (later named Augustus) who will, after the triumvirate is dissolved, usher in an unprecedented and prolonged period of peace. Sutherland, now a boyish and petulant Octavius, now a wise and forward-looking ruler, keeps us wondering in this play: good guy or bad guy? To his credit, Octavius gives instructions for Antony and Cleopatra be buried together, saying, "No grave upon the earth shall clip in it/A pair so famous." And yet, history tells us, he paraded Cleopatra in effigy through the streets of Rome where the rabble abused her.

As for Antony and Cleopatra? Power seekers? Lovers in a dangerous time? Certainty eludes me as it did not in my salad days.

joled@telus.net