MULTIPURPOSE

MULTIPURPOSE

1. STAGING AND CONTEMPORARY PRODUCTIONS

   • 2013 RSC: 'transatlantic' Napoleonic/colonial- draws out RACIAL TENSIONS. Cleopatra= sensuous/vivid, 'seasoned political operator', Antony= 'salty', Octavius= 'Caligula', use of Enobarbus as 'voodoo style spirit of the dead'. Use of pools of water as site of battles... Cleo's element always dominates the stage
   • 2012 Atolyesi: Antony= 'ruined grandeur', Octavius= 'cold-blooded politician'
   • 2012 Chichester: Cleopatra= more human, wears many masks,
   • 2010 Boyd: Cleopatra= 'mercurial and witty', Antony= 'playboy sensuality and political ineptitude'

2. LITERARY CONTEXT/ GENRE

   • Draws on classical tragedy. Antony's 'hamartia'= passion for Cleopatra, 'anagnorisis'= following loss of honour at battle of Actium, 'peripeteia'= Actium. Enobarbus stands in place of chorus.
   • Sequel to Julius Caesar
   • Draws on Plutarch's account of the lovers BUT more sympathetic towards Cleopatra.

3. GENERAL AO3

   • A&C= 'shaggy and challenging tragedy' Dickson
   • Antony's death= 'cruel comedy' Gardner
   • 'full of rhetorical excess' Billington

4. HELPFUL TERMS

   • Anagnorisis
   • Hamartia
   • Pathos
   • Renaissance/Jacobean/Christian conceits
   • Stereotypes
   • Common mysogyny

5. Multiple AOs

   • Where modern audiences are seduced by Cleopatra, the 'courtesan of genius', the contemporary Jacobean audience, strongly influenced by common gender stereotypes, would have viewed the Egyptian queen's strong sexuality as negative- conforming instead to the patriarchal construct of woman as whore.
   • Given that in this period, theatre could be used as a political statement as much as for entertainment purposes, the provocative nature of the comparisons that could be drawn between (the degraded Cleopatra and the virgin queen- Elizabeth I) (the 'cold and calculating' Caesar and James I) suggest that instead, we should view the characters...