Shakespeare in the Park with Antony & Cleopatra
This year’s 4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival delivers the rare treat of Antony & Cleopatra.
The jacarandas are in bloom and the weather’s getting balmy, which means it’s time for the 4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival.
The focal point of the festival is Shakespeare in the Park, which happens at the Roma Street Parkland Amphitheatre, a wonderful venue for keeping the works of William Shakespeare alive and breathing and on stage. This happens on November 2 and 3 with the Shakespearean Dance Workshop and Demonstration, a Swordplay Demonstration and the Shakespearean Language Talk by the erudite Professor Roly Sussex, with the play performed as dusk approaches.
This year is a bit special because they are doing Antony & Cleopatra, which isn’t performed that often. The director this year is Jacqui Somerville, who is program director for the bachelor of acting course at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. She says the play wouldn’t have been her first choice, but she has warmed to it.
“Reading the play and realising the beauty of the language, and the personal relationships amid this backdrop of war and politics, it has fast become one of my favourite Shakespeare’s,” Somerville says. “And from the rehearsal process and discovering in action the humour of the play and the poetry of the language, I am excited to unleash our version to the 4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival audience.
“The first task when diving into the play was knowing that it would need to be cut considerably to fit into the timeframe of a Roma Street Parkland performance. It is a long play, running to three-and-a-half hours, if every word is spoken, but it has been reduced neatly to under two hours. I wonder if that is why it is not performed as often as other Shakespearean plays?
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“It deeply interested me that the text of Antony & Cleopatra was not printed until the Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays were published in 1623, meaning it was not performed in Shakespeare’s lifetime. His source material was Plutarch’s Life of Mark Antony, where the emphasis on Antony’s relationship with Cleopatra was a central focus, as were the complexities of their personalities.
“Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is a fascinating woman played in our production by Ashlee Lollback. Plutarch was writing 200 years after Cleopatra’s death, discovering traces of the way her own people had seen her and revealing a contrasting view from how the Romans saw her. He depicted her as a flawed character.
“It was essential that at the heart of our production would be the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra, an ill-fated love story between two people of power and circumstance from two different worlds that collide and implode. It was exciting to trim the play down to reflect their journey as well as amalgamate certain characters to align with their plot.
“It was important that we focused on the difference between the worlds of Egypt and Rome: Cleopatra’s Egypt is feminine, passionate and exotic and the world of Rome is cold, brutal and harsh. Xanthe Jones has created wonderful costumes that highlight this and Ben Lynskey has created a set design that effectively serves the antithetic worlds of the play.
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“I have loved Shakespeare for many years and have had the good fortune of working at both the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon and at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. It is with great pleasure I continue my journey with the Bard here in Brisbane, with the 4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival.”
4MBS general manager Gary Thorpe is passionate about this festival and he recounts someone once telling him : “My criteria for a dynamic and vibrant city is whether they have Shakespeare in the Park.”
“So said a well-travelled man at the 4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival a couple of years ago,” Thorpe recalls. “So, Shakespeare in the Park is an important part of providing a well-rounded cultural life. Relaxing in a park enjoying the work of the greatest writer in our culture is one of the great delights of our society. 4MBS is delighted that we can provide this experience for the people of Brisbane with the support of Brisbane City Council.”
The festival is also celebrated on air, on 4MBS Classic FM 103.7, leading up to performance day with various programming around the Bard. Among the special events is a talk and reading called Shakespeare’s Keynote Speeches. Acclaimed actor Eugene Gilfedder, an accomplished Shakespearian actor and director, explores Shakespeare’s words at the 4MBS Performance Studio on October 26 at 2pm.
The following weekend it’s showtime and a rare chance to experience Antony & Cleopatra, which many of us will be seeing for the first time on stage. There was a classic 1972 film version starring Charlton Heston and Hildegard Neil. And who can forget the 1963 film Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Richard Burton as Marc Antony. Mind you, that one had little to do with Shakespeare. Just saying.
4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival: Women in Shakespeare October 30-31; Shakespeare’s Keynote Speeches October 26; Shakespeare in the Park November 2-3.
brisbaneshakespearefestival.com.au