This Shakespeare Handbook offers a stimulating and accessible guide to Antony and Cleopatra as theatre. It focuses on the challenges of bringing the notorious lovers and their world to the stage, and explores both recent and Renaissance theatrical approaches.
A scene-by-scene account of the play examines the various ways in which the play can be performed, and shows the characters as theatrical beings, in dynamic relationship with both each other and the audience. Lively, critical close readings of key stage and film versions demonstrate the importance of every element of the theatre event in the interpretation of this play's startling shifts from passion to pragmatism, comedy to tragedy, grandeur to irony. The play is contextualised historically, culturally and in terms of its sources, and suggestions for further reading guide the student through the play's critical reception.