Anthony and Cleopatra

Tara Conlan  The Stage 28th October 1998

So much expectation surrounded this production it was always going to be hard for it to live up to the hype and the hopes.

It is not as good as it could have been, but not as truly awful as the headlines have suggested. The main problem for the National Theatre at the moment is that Trevor Nunn is not media favorite Richard Eyre.

Whether it was the casting or Sean Mathias' direction, Alan Rickman looks rather lost in the role of Antony--the grand fall of the great warrior becomes more of a drunken stagger into disillusionment and despair.

But Rickman does bring out Antony's common humanity and his war-weariness, when you can hear him. Some of Shakespeare's pearls disappear into Rickman's moustache--a sound-baffling feature the Royal Albert Hall would be envious of.

Rumours of spats aside, there was, unfortunately, more chemistry between Rickman and Bruce Willis in Die Hard than there is between him and Helen Mirren's Cleopatra.

Mirren is capricious when she should be and conveys Cleopatra's sparky, humorous highs and desperate lows. Interestingly, both Mirren and Rickman's best scenes are the ones in which they commit suicide, Mirren imperious and dignified and Rickman desperate and crushed.

Tim Hatley's set may be slow to move into place but, at times, impressive. The circular steel cage, studded with hundreds of candles, that surrounds Cleopatra in the monument scene, is particularly effective. James Wood's music is unusual but often expressive.

Incidentally, for those of you who have been following the escapades of the NT snakes, they remained calm and professional throughout.

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