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London's West End Theaters Offer a Lively Mix
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10298 |
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Section : |
The Arts
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| Issue
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12 / 1986 |
2,488 Words |
| Author
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Gregory Speck
Gregory Speck is a freelance arts writer based in New York
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Power is often said to be the ultimate aphrodisiac, and in the case of two significant theatrical productions of the 1986 season in London's famed West End, the seat of power is portrayed from a connubial point of view, where ambitious but vulnerable heroines are destroyed by the desire for yet more power through political association with a loved one.
Both of these two plays offered startling performances by gifted actresses at the height of their artistic powers, and though one was written almost 400 years ago about an event that took place nearly 2,000 years ago, and the other was written and set in the present era, each portrays a classic situation in which human character struggles against itself and eventually brings about its own demise.
William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is among the Bard's more rarely staged histories, but when Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Dalton play the title roles, they imbue the work with vitality, immediacy, and indeed carnality that make ancient Alexandria, Rome, and Athens seem very much like modern London, Paris, and New York, where jet set powerbrokers wheel and deal and think themselves immune from problems besetting mere mortals. By the time Mark Antony has lost his army, Cleopatra, her fleet, and both of them any semblance of self-respect before their appalled retinues, it is clear that the passion for power and for one another that has led them to such arrogant and poorly planned tactics has clouded their perceptions of exactly who they are.
Vanessa Redgrave is widely regarded as among the finest, if most unconventional thespians of her generation, and her enactment of Cleopatra reflects
... (1996 of 14823 Characters)
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