Have enormous appreciation for Shakespeare and his plays ever since being introduced to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Macbeth' in primary school, when reading the text aloud and analysing as a class which fascinated and benefitted me. 'Antony and Cleopatra' is for me towards the top ranking his plays, beautiful text and with two of Shakespeare's most justifiably iconic characters.
As far as the BBC Television Shakespeare productions go, as said a few times already a must see for anyone wanting to see productions of all Shakespeare's plays in one series, 'Antony and Cleopatra' is somewhere in the low-middle. Regardless of any budget limitations, it is interesting to see Shakespeare mostly done tastefully, even if some productions are more gripping than others, and to see talented casts mostly doing good work with the odd oddity. As of now the BBC production of 'Antony and Cleopatra' is the lowest rated of this series and the reception at the time apparently was less than great, but for me, while it could have been much better, it is better than that. Not the best production of the play, but as of now it's lower rated than the production with Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave, which from personal opinion was visually unappealing, static and over-acted, the best asset being the performance of Enobarbus, and do have to disagree on that front.
This production of 'Antony and Cleopatra' is not a bad one, though could have been quite a lot more. Will start with the good. The costumes are nicely tailored and lush on the most part, and the filming while not cinematic is neither chaotic or static. It is very clear as to why Jonathan Miller was chosen to direct more than one production of the BBC Television Shakespeare series, directing six of the plays for the series. This does not contain some of his best work by all means but nothing came over as distasteful, didn't ever really question why anything was there, and there are emotive moments without being overdone. Found myself quite touched by the latter scenes between Antony and Cleopatra.
Shakespeare's dialogue sings and flows beautifully and most of the cast are fine. Jane Lapotaire may not quite be sensual enough for Cleopatra, but she puts a lot of fire, passion and delicate emotion to the role which more than makes up for it. Emrys James' Enobarbus is movingly conflicted and Donald Sumpter is a text-book (in a great way) Pompeius. Found the best performance to come from Ian Charleson as Caesar, a very authoritative portrayal.
Conversely, the production also could have been done much better. It is rather stage-bound and momentum does sag frequently in the less eventful and more talkier scenes that feel longer than they are. There is a lack of grandeur visually, with some of the sets being simplistic and sparse and scenes that should have roused felt under-populated and static.
Despite saying that most of the cast are fine, am going to concur with the criticisms for Colin Blakely's Antony. This has nothing to do with his physique, actually couldn't care less for that, my problem was that for a character who should show lots of authority his presence felt anaemic and then in the more emotional moments he sometimes came over as overwrought. Would have liked to have seen more passion in the chemistry between him and Lapotaire, which has moments of spark later on but takes too long to gel.
In conclusion, not a bad production of 'Antony and Cleopatra' but there are short-comings. 6/10
As far as the BBC Television Shakespeare productions go, as said a few times already a must see for anyone wanting to see productions of all Shakespeare's plays in one series, 'Antony and Cleopatra' is somewhere in the low-middle. Regardless of any budget limitations, it is interesting to see Shakespeare mostly done tastefully, even if some productions are more gripping than others, and to see talented casts mostly doing good work with the odd oddity. As of now the BBC production of 'Antony and Cleopatra' is the lowest rated of this series and the reception at the time apparently was less than great, but for me, while it could have been much better, it is better than that. Not the best production of the play, but as of now it's lower rated than the production with Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave, which from personal opinion was visually unappealing, static and over-acted, the best asset being the performance of Enobarbus, and do have to disagree on that front.
This production of 'Antony and Cleopatra' is not a bad one, though could have been quite a lot more. Will start with the good. The costumes are nicely tailored and lush on the most part, and the filming while not cinematic is neither chaotic or static. It is very clear as to why Jonathan Miller was chosen to direct more than one production of the BBC Television Shakespeare series, directing six of the plays for the series. This does not contain some of his best work by all means but nothing came over as distasteful, didn't ever really question why anything was there, and there are emotive moments without being overdone. Found myself quite touched by the latter scenes between Antony and Cleopatra.
Shakespeare's dialogue sings and flows beautifully and most of the cast are fine. Jane Lapotaire may not quite be sensual enough for Cleopatra, but she puts a lot of fire, passion and delicate emotion to the role which more than makes up for it. Emrys James' Enobarbus is movingly conflicted and Donald Sumpter is a text-book (in a great way) Pompeius. Found the best performance to come from Ian Charleson as Caesar, a very authoritative portrayal.
Conversely, the production also could have been done much better. It is rather stage-bound and momentum does sag frequently in the less eventful and more talkier scenes that feel longer than they are. There is a lack of grandeur visually, with some of the sets being simplistic and sparse and scenes that should have roused felt under-populated and static.
Despite saying that most of the cast are fine, am going to concur with the criticisms for Colin Blakely's Antony. This has nothing to do with his physique, actually couldn't care less for that, my problem was that for a character who should show lots of authority his presence felt anaemic and then in the more emotional moments he sometimes came over as overwrought. Would have liked to have seen more passion in the chemistry between him and Lapotaire, which has moments of spark later on but takes too long to gel.
In conclusion, not a bad production of 'Antony and Cleopatra' but there are short-comings. 6/10