<i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, and: <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Antony and Cleopatra, and: Romeo and Juliet Darlene Farabee Antony and Cleopatra Presented by Flatwater Shakespeare at the Swan Theatre at Wyuka in Lincoln, Nebraska. September 9–26, 2010. Directed by Bob Hall. Design by Stephen Buhler. Sound design by Sydney Ray. Costume design by Kat Cover. Lighting design by Richard Schroeder. Choreography by Daniel Kubert. With Jeff Tinnean (Scarrus), Andy Dillehay (Demetrius), Melissa Lewis Nuss (Cleopatra), Vince Learned (Antony), Dawn Marie Moe (Charmian), Darin Hemmer (Alexas), Dustin White (Soothsayer), Nathan Weiss (Enobarbus), Noelle Bohaty (Iras), Danny Kubert (Mardian), Eric Ojeda (Eros), Scott Herr (Caesar), Richard Sibley (Lepidus), Shawn White (Thidias), Dick Nielsen (Agrippa), John Marinovich (Maecenas), and Andrea Swartz (Octavia). Romeo and Juliet Presented by Nebraska Wesleyan University at the Miller Laboratory Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska. November 4–14, 2010. Directed by Parker Reed. Costume design by Elinor Parker. Scenery design by Michael Reese. Light design by Josh Greiveldinger. With Philip Matthews (Prince), Zachary Ireland Splittgerber (Paris), Jarrett Thomas (Mercutio), Chris Bott (Friar Lawrence), Derek Jeck (Lord Capulet), Steavie Hergenrader (Lady Capulet), Karlene Grinberg (Juliet), Isaac Anderson (Tybalt), Abbie Krenz (Rosaline), Zenaida Smith (Nurse), Kiel Walker (Lord Montague), Kelsey Arendt (Lady Montague), James Hesse (Romeo), Erik Gosnell (Benvolio), and others. Both Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet are plays built on plots so well known—and so well known in Shakespeare's time—that either could be forgiven for holding few surprises. The two recent productions reviewed here managed to offer fresh versions of the plays without entirely remaking the texts. The Flatwater Shakespeare production of Antony and Cleopatra presented a heavily trimmed and streamlined text. The external political [End Page 196] machinations and ramifications fell away in the cutting, and the heavy trimming after Antony's death allowed a closer to equal pairing of Antony and Cleopatra. What this cutting produced then was a play between two strong people vying for power in the relationship at the same moment they were vying for the power in the world. But, rather than the external political pressures and concerns seeming to build the barriers between them, those pressures were almost reduced to an articulated metaphor to represent the difficulties of the love between them. The international conflicts became nearly a matter of synchronicity rather than causally related to specific actions taken by Antony and Cleopatra. If Lear has a storm as the ultimate backdrop, this Antony and Cleopatra had battles. The Flatwater production took place in an open acting space surrounded by buildings on all four sides. In its previous use, the space had been a barnyard—not only that, it was a barnyard in a cemetery. While the buildings are clearly no longer used as a barnyard, the cemetery is still very much a cemetery. From within the playing space, the graveyard is not visible, but the aptness of the location for a production of Hamlet, for example, crossed my mind. This production marked the end of Flatwater playing there until renovations of the space are complete. One end of the rectangular playing space is occupied by the largest structure (the barn proper, a two-story building) and the other three sides are closed off by one-story open-walled structures with the open air playing space in the center. If it included second-story audience areas, it would resemble an inn yard. The audience sat on two sides while the far end was built up with scaffolding and walls as a backdrop and provided another off stage space. This physical arrangement is important because of the use to which it was put in the production. Actors could enter and exit from either downstage, where there was no audience, or upstage, where the backdrop provided them a more standard set of doors and an upper-level playing space. Although I am using the terms upstage and downstage, as I imagine the actors thought of them, it was matter of right and left for the audience (depending, of course, on which side one sat). This arrangement of the playing space, I found, affected the audience in interesting ways. For one thing, we were always seeing one another; even if one was not looking at individual audience members...