I saw Antoni and Cleopatra. It was four hours long. I was a little antsy by then end. My dressing up and down class was all required to go, so we went and sat in the theatre for four hours. The beginning was really great. They had frequent costume changes and the first scenes in Egypt were beautiful and lighthearted. But the play was a tradgedy, so at then ed, we were just waiting for people to die. There was a large bought of suicide halfway through the second half. Antoni had word that Cloepatra was dead so he wanted to kill himself. he ordered his trusty warrior to kill him, but instead of serving the order, the servant killed himself. Antoni was disappointed. He tried to kill himself, and in teh end he was successful, but it was slow because he didn't make a great enough blow. What he should have done is slit his throat the way the soldier did. Dumb move, man. His death was a good opportunity for comic relief I suppose. Shakespear took full advantage of the last opportunity for humor betwen the two lovers. He said, "Let me speak." dieing in her lap. And she said, "No, let me speak, and blah blah..." Then he says, "Just a word?" Funny, right? She was a manipulative woman, that Cleo. It was tsrange though, because I understood her to be a powerful woamn with all of Egypt under her reign. She must have had her own resources, but instead of stnading proudly with other world rulers, usin her weight of the crown, she just manipulated others the way any beautiful woman could. She was emotional and in love. And she was way into herself, but never into the whole Ruler side of herself, just the girly side. She cou;d have been a concubine.
She had a really nice gown. It was all white and very smooth and it laid on her so gracefully, fitting her loosely, but still displaying her form. It rested on her breasts and sometimes on her belly, then it folded unperturbed around her knees like a sheet of water falling over a steep ridge. And she wore this with a golden robe that draped over her shoulders and fell open down to the floor. When she sat, she looked like an egyptian statue. She really looked like the princess I've seen in images of great Egyptian art. She looked like the statues they animated in Prince of Egypt. It was wonderful to see that such a long gone culture could be recreated and placed on a modernday theatre stage.