When in Rome…
Friday, March 21st by scott malia
A new trend in productions of Shakespearean plays is to present several of the works in repertory as a set or series. Most recently, the histories have been presented en masse as an historical cycle consisting of the Henry and Richard plays. Now, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra are being presented together as a “Roman Repertory.” The productions even share some of the same actors, including the one playing Marc Antony. The repertory approach to the plays has many advantages, namely comparing the works and creating relationships between them. In contemporary theatre, plays presented in repertory are often part of a series in which most or all of the characters reappear in each installment. Relatively recent examples of this include Angels in America and The Coast of Utopia.
For Shakespeare, the relationships among the plays differ because they weren’t necessarily written or conceived as a series. This is particularly true of the histories, some of which were not written in the chronological order of the events they depict. For Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, there are similar issues to consider. Though the action of the plays is separated by merely a few years, the plays were written nearly a decade apart. Therefore, can we really make these plays work together tonally? Antony and Cleopatra’s name value centers around a tragic romance, which is not the case for Julius Caesar, whose notoriety stems from its political machinations. It would be ridiculous to try to prove whether or not Shakespeare would have wanted these plays presented together. The real test of their compatibility may come from seeing them side by side.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am
I don’t know–I think Antony and Cleopatra is quite a political play. I’m thinking about the early scenes in Rome and the emergence of Octavian as the ruler of the known world (”The time of universal peace is near,” he says, just before the last battle of the play.). I’d love the chance to see the two of them back to back and see what kind of interesting thematic resonances happen.
I’ve always wished that Shakespeare would have done one more play to complete a “trilogy” on the early Roman empire, something dramatizing Caesar’s war against Pompey prior to the events in “Julius Caesar.” Ah, well, I can always watch season 1 of “Rome” on DVD for that.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Nothing new under the sun - quite a common pairing - sometimes Coriolanus is thrown in too.
Why the need for a trilogy? Henry IV comes as a pair (and Henry VI was originally a pair - the second two parts).