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759 reviews for:
Antony And Cleopatra: An Extraordinary Tale of fiction Drama By William Shakespeare (Annotated)
William Shakespeare
3.56 AVERAGE
759 reviews for:
Antony And Cleopatra: An Extraordinary Tale of fiction Drama By William Shakespeare (Annotated)
William Shakespeare
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
Not my favorite. Fragmented, occasionally funny, and often that worst sin, boring. Call me a commoner but I only liked the comedy bits, and didn't find the whole thing very "tragic" because the only sympathetic character was Octavia.
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ok technically I watched the play.... but ashton says it counts as reading ESPECIALLY bc I had to read the captions because my audio processing is so bad....
With a tiny bit of editing, this is a really great play. I've never seen it performed, and I'm really curious about performance texts for this play -- whether they cut some of the buffoonery, which seems shoehorned in in order to give the company comedian something to do, and how they handle the multiple settings before, during, and after the battles. I wonder why there isn't a contemporary Hollywood version. Maybe no one wants to fund a sea battle? Or deal with the massive & endemic race, class, gender, and colonial questions that pervade the story.
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
The best part was Cleopatra trying to kill the messenger bc he told her Antony married another woman.
When everyone thinks of great Shakespearean plays, Hamlet springs to mind, or Lear , or The Tempest, or Dream or the lust filled R&J. I, however, think Tony and Cleo, if I may be informal, is one of Shakespeare's best.
Instead of the heady, younglust, sorry, love that is R&J we are presented with a mature love affair, a love affair that perhaps echoes the court of King James I. A world where the playwright is entirely sympathetic to an Antony who allows his appetite to dominate him. What we are also given, and what rarely gets acknowledged, is a wonderful and at times stark portrayal of power and the politics surrounding it. The play itself as wonderful comments about the nature of getting and keeping power, and about the politics underlings must play in order to keep their heads.
Instead of the heady, young
The actress who played Cleopatra certainly went the over the top route with the character. I found her grating, but Cleopatra is supposed to be, I guess.
My main issue with this play is that the audiobook format is hard to follow. In a printed play, you have stage directions. On stage, you can see the individual actors, their body language and staging, to understand who is speaking and why. Here, there are just voices, and some were similar enough that I wasn’t sure who was talking. It made for a confusing listen in some places, but the language and the accompanying music were great aural experiences. Probably best listened to with the play in front of you.
My main issue with this play is that the audiobook format is hard to follow. In a printed play, you have stage directions. On stage, you can see the individual actors, their body language and staging, to understand who is speaking and why. Here, there are just voices, and some were similar enough that I wasn’t sure who was talking. It made for a confusing listen in some places, but the language and the accompanying music were great aural experiences. Probably best listened to with the play in front of you.