| . | 04/06/2008
Antony and Cleopatra
By: Victor Gluck
Laila Robins and Marton Csokas
(photo credit: Gerry Goodstein)
As the third and final play of Theatre for a New Audience’s season dedicated to “Africa, Europe, America: Exploring the Connections,” director Darko Tresnjak has updated Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s tragedy of mature passion and power politics in the Roman world, to 1884. This date has been chosen for being the moment when the European powers began looking for colonial empires in the so-called “dark continent,” and the phrase “the scramble for Africa” was first coined.
Last season Tresnjak directed TFNA’s brilliantly conceived updated version of The Merchant of Venice in which characters spoke soliloquies into cell phones and Portia’s three caskets were revealed on laptop screens. All of this worked because The Merchant of Venice’s theme of the outsider in a tightly knit society is still very pertinent today. However, Antony and Cleopatra is about how the private desires of two historic characters led them to make poor choices in their public duty. It is also about the fight for power in the Roman world and the end of the triumvirate that led to Rome’s being ruled by an emperor for years to come. Here Tresnjak has dressed the Romans like British soldiers and turned the play into a story of modern colonialism. On paper, the concept must have seemed an obvious parallel. On stage, Shakespeare’s text goes in an entirely different direction.
The title roles are played by New York stage veteran Laila Robins and New Zealand actor Marton Csokas making his local debut. Although both performers have a great deal of stage presence, there is little chemistry between them. This gives the lie to a passion that historically destroyed one empire, and rocked the very foundation of a second. Dressed sumptuously in gowns by Linda Cho, Robins wins handily in their scenes of romantic banter and in her lording it over her court. When it comes to Cleopatra’s “infinite variety,” Robins seems too mannered to fit the bill. Csokas looks like the heroic warrior in midlife with his deep chest, full beard and impressive height. However, his delivery rings hollow as he declaims his lines rather than lives them. In the past, the diction of Theatre for a New Audience classic revivals has been extremely clear and lucid. Here, although the conversational parts of the play are fine, the set speeches and long passages seem either under-rehearsed or in need of further interpretation.
As Antony’s rival, Jeffrey Carlson’s blond Caesar is effective as a man who is all business and rules, yet at the same time giving Caesar a sniveling attitude that makes Antony all the more tragic in his downfall. Playing several characters, Erik Singer is most noticeable as the turbaned Soothsayer who makes repeated silent appearances to suggest fate, but instead seems to be a refugee from Shakespeare’s other tragedy, Macbeth. John Douglas Thompson as Antony’s second-in-command Enobarbus fails to bring any sense of ethical weight to the only character that has a catharsis in the course of the drama. Cleopatra’s courtiers played by Michael Rogers (Alexas), Christen Simon (Charmian) and Christine Corpuz (Iras) are satisfactory without making the roles their own. As Caesar’s sister Octavia, offered to the widowed Antony as a wife for political reasons, Lisa Velten Smith makes little impression. In the small roles of Menas and Thidias, Christian Rummel offers an intensity lacking in most of the other performances.
The production has been beautifully designed by Alexander Dodge with a shimmering blue sea and horizon on Plexiglas panels, some of which slide open to reveal an inner room which turns orange, blue or yellow depending on the mood of the scene in York Kennedy’s colorful lighting plot. A blue and white tile pool is located at the foot of the stage. All of this is very eye-catching, but it very quickly becomes distracting as the play moves from Cleopatra’s capital of Alexandria, to Caesar’s Rome, to the battle of Actium in Greece, and back again. The opening Egyptian sequence is cleverly created with a colorful woven rug and pillows. However, this exotic atmosphere is never recreated, nor is the Roman world of the play given any particular look. Hence, the two worlds of the tragedy are never visually at odds.
The most successful and exciting scene in this production is the orgy that Antony throws to celebrate his wedding to Octavia, complete with belly dancers and much carousing. Ironically, this scene is totally wordless; however, it dramatically makes the point that Antony is a man who lives entirely for his passions. Had the rest of this production been as well conceived as this, Darko Tresnjak’s revival of Antony and Cleopatra might have been a thrilling evening of theater.
Antony and Cleopatra (through May 2)
Theatre for a New Audience, at The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd St., in Manhattan
For tickets, call 646-223-3010 or http://www.tfana.org
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