vesper’s pageants.
…
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns and makes it indistinct
As water is in water.
…
My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
He can’t live up to his own reputation any more, and that extraordinary, tragic decline was both very funny and very moving. Patrick managed to bring out all that pomposity and vainglorious self-importance and yet also an awareness that he was losing it and had just one thing to hold on to: the insane, mad relationship he was having with Cleopatra. Cleopatra as a politician was always going to be able to survive without Mark Antony, but the other way around was not the case. Antony required Cleopatra in order to be able to continue with “one other gaudy night.” He was a very contemporary figure; somebody who has known great wealth and fame and been at the top of their game, but is now no longer able to sustain that. Understanding that about him enabled him to be the most original Antony. Many people said that they hadn’t really ever regarded Antony as a great part, but Patrick made it one.
How did you tackle the “middle-aged” quality of their passion ?
Noble: One didn’t really need to, because the thing is this: when people fall in love, whatever age they are, they feel like they’re seventeen and they often act like they’re seventeen. That’s why people “tut tut” at middle-aged people kissing in public, or doing silly things, or dancing. Nearly all children are appalled when their parents dance because that’s not what parents are supposed to do! I think Helen was in her late thirties and Michael was probably early forties. I didn’t want to cast a fifty-year-old actress, however great she might be, because it seemed to me that we had the best in the country at that point anyway with Helen Mirren.
Murray: Well, you very rarely have a love scene between them. When you do it is obviously very important to give it great prominence. But the really important thing is the scenes when they are
not
together: seeing Antony dealing with Enobarbus; seeing him beginning to admit that these things are more important; seeing the rages that he gets into; and seeing his growing impotence. Once he had committed himself to being in Egypt I changed his clothes completely, a bit like, to sound crude, an aging hippie. It was rather better than that, but it was a middle-aged man trying to hang on to his youth. It’s mainly contained in the play: the way suddenly the peoplethat know him see his behavior begin to change, and their reactions to him.
7. Antony as an aging hippie in Cleopatra’s exotic court: Tom Mannion and Josette Bushell-Mingo in Braham Murray’s 2005 production, with Charmian, Iras, and Mardian the eunuch in attendance.
Doran: Simply by their being middle-aged: an actor in his sixties and an actress in her fifties. Shakespeare has this prejudice against elders, as Hamlet in the closet scene with Gertrude says: at her age she shouldn’t be interested in sex any more. But the fact that they were tactile with each is what allowed that to work. Of course, they are never alone onstage together, except once in Act 4 when Cleopatra speaks one line. It’s always a performance. They are always on show and are addicted to self-promotion. They are actually separated for most of the play. There are only four or five scenes when they are together onstage, and the only moment where they really demonstrate their sexual attraction for each other is the first scene, which is very short and is also in the context of Antony being caught in this Venus flytrap. It’s partially about how their love is received by the other characters onstage: either with disdain and some degree of outrage by the Romans, or by delightful encouragement from theother Egyptians in the court. Then by the time you get to the big gaudy night scene you realize that Antony is already in
…
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns and makes it indistinct
As water is in water.
…
My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
He can’t live up to his own reputation any more, and that extraordinary, tragic decline was both very funny and very moving. Patrick managed to bring out all that pomposity and vainglorious self-importance and yet also an awareness that he was losing it and had just one thing to hold on to: the insane, mad relationship he was having with Cleopatra. Cleopatra as a politician was always going to be able to survive without Mark Antony, but the other way around was not the case. Antony required Cleopatra in order to be able to continue with “one other gaudy night.” He was a very contemporary figure; somebody who has known great wealth and fame and been at the top of their game, but is now no longer able to sustain that. Understanding that about him enabled him to be the most original Antony. Many people said that they hadn’t really ever regarded Antony as a great part, but Patrick made it one.
How did you tackle the “middle-aged” quality of their passion ?
Noble: One didn’t really need to, because the thing is this: when people fall in love, whatever age they are, they feel like they’re seventeen and they often act like they’re seventeen. That’s why people “tut tut” at middle-aged people kissing in public, or doing silly things, or dancing. Nearly all children are appalled when their parents dance because that’s not what parents are supposed to do! I think Helen was in her late thirties and Michael was probably early forties. I didn’t want to cast a fifty-year-old actress, however great she might be, because it seemed to me that we had the best in the country at that point anyway with Helen Mirren.
Murray: Well, you very rarely have a love scene between them. When you do it is obviously very important to give it great prominence. But the really important thing is the scenes when they are
not
together: seeing Antony dealing with Enobarbus; seeing him beginning to admit that these things are more important; seeing the rages that he gets into; and seeing his growing impotence. Once he had committed himself to being in Egypt I changed his clothes completely, a bit like, to sound crude, an aging hippie. It was rather better than that, but it was a middle-aged man trying to hang on to his youth. It’s mainly contained in the play: the way suddenly the peoplethat know him see his behavior begin to change, and their reactions to him.
7. Antony as an aging hippie in Cleopatra’s exotic court: Tom Mannion and Josette Bushell-Mingo in Braham Murray’s 2005 production, with Charmian, Iras, and Mardian the eunuch in attendance.
Doran: Simply by their being middle-aged: an actor in his sixties and an actress in her fifties. Shakespeare has this prejudice against elders, as Hamlet in the closet scene with Gertrude says: at her age she shouldn’t be interested in sex any more. But the fact that they were tactile with each is what allowed that to work. Of course, they are never alone onstage together, except once in Act 4 when Cleopatra speaks one line. It’s always a performance. They are always on show and are addicted to self-promotion. They are actually separated for most of the play. There are only four or five scenes when they are together onstage, and the only moment where they really demonstrate their sexual attraction for each other is the first scene, which is very short and is also in the context of Antony being caught in this Venus flytrap. It’s partially about how their love is received by the other characters onstage: either with disdain and some degree of outrage by the Romans, or by delightful encouragement from theother Egyptians in the court. Then by the time you get to the big gaudy night scene you realize that Antony is already in
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