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[THEATER REVIEW] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA at SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY
8.10.07
Antony and Cleopatra
(Founders' Theater, Lenox, Mass.)
BY FRANK RIZZO/VARIETY
A Shakespeare & Company presentation of a play in two acts by William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Hammond.
Cleopatra - Tina Packer
Antony - Nigel Gore
Octavius Caesar - Craig Baldwin
Charmian - Christianna Nelson
Agrippa - Michael Solomon
Enorbarbus - Walton Wilson
It's not just the casting of Shakespeare & Company's plump, sixtysomething a.d. as queen of denial that sinks its production of "Antony and Cleopatra" like a bad barge. After all, many famous actresses of a certain age have tried their hand as a more mature Cleo -- and other even more unlikely roles in the Bard's canon -- and some have brought new perspectives to the parts. But here, a miscast Cleopatra is just one of the production's many problems -- some underscoring recurring deficiencies at the popular tourist attraction in the Berkshires, now in its 30th year.
Many of Shakespeare & Co.'s Bard stagings (the theater also does non-Shakespearean works) have a similar feel to them: Costumes are seemingly assembled from the racks (here, the fashion is tie-dye mixed with leather and gilt); stock set pieces have a recycled look; and the extreme thrust stage certainly challenges helmers -- but doesn't necessarily have to defeat them. After all, it speaks to the kind of raw theater style in which Shakespeare's work was originally presented and can be helpful in quick-changing locales.
That been-here/saw-that feeling is not such a distraction when the show is competently done. But when major elements of a production are off, as they are here, it raises larger issues.
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