Antony and Cleopatra

Two of history's most legendary lovers destroy an empire and themselves in this staggering tragedy. Mark Antony, Roman general and one of the world's most powerful men, abandons his duties, his marriage, and his political alliance to dwell in Alexandria with Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt whose charm is as dangerous as her venom. As Octavius Caesar rises to claim dominion over Rome, Antony must choose between the woman who inflames his soul and the duty that defines his name. Shakespeare constructs their catastrophe with devastating clarity: these are not foolish lovers but great ones, undone not by weakness but by the immensity of what they feel. The play hurtles between the sensual, languorous world of Egypt where language becomes music and the austere, calculating corridors of Roman power, demanding we hold both in mind. Cleopatra alone justifies the work: vain, treacherous, hilarious, heartbroken, and finally majestic in her refusal to be captured by the victor. She is perhaps Shakespeare's most fully human creation, and the play's refusal to judge her, to let us off the hook of easy condemnation, makes this tragedy pulse with modern relevance.