This follow-up to "Julius Caesar" watching the continuing fortunes of Mark Antony (Colin Blakely) and Octavius Caesar (Ian Charleson) suffers from a fate that plagued too many of the BBC Shakespeare productions. Despite good performances and an accuracy with the text, it is overlong and too Elizabethan for it's own good.
Mark Antony has won the country of Egypt for the Roman Empire, but becomes divided from his friend and fellow ruler Octavius Caesar when he falls in love with Cleopatra (Jane Lapotaire), Queen of Egypt setting the pair of them on course for a showdown...
Blakely is good as Antony, and Lapotaire is dynamic and passionate as Cleopatra but Colin Blakely could do more with Caesar to give him more presence. There is some good support here with Emrys James's conflicted Enobarbus and Antony Pedley as Agrippa.
Technically it's got some interesting sets notably Cleopatra's boudoir, but there is an excessive reliance on plain white or plain black backgrounds, and the stage fighting is clumsy and awkward to watch.
Some scenes could have definitely been cut for pace as they drag too often, a sin in a straight drama such as this.
Worthy but ineffective stuff.
Mark Antony has won the country of Egypt for the Roman Empire, but becomes divided from his friend and fellow ruler Octavius Caesar when he falls in love with Cleopatra (Jane Lapotaire), Queen of Egypt setting the pair of them on course for a showdown...
Blakely is good as Antony, and Lapotaire is dynamic and passionate as Cleopatra but Colin Blakely could do more with Caesar to give him more presence. There is some good support here with Emrys James's conflicted Enobarbus and Antony Pedley as Agrippa.
Technically it's got some interesting sets notably Cleopatra's boudoir, but there is an excessive reliance on plain white or plain black backgrounds, and the stage fighting is clumsy and awkward to watch.
Some scenes could have definitely been cut for pace as they drag too often, a sin in a straight drama such as this.
Worthy but ineffective stuff.