Antony and Cleopatra

ISBN-13: 9781403942074 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 192 str.

Bridget Escolme

Opis

This Shakespeare Handbook offers the student of Shakespeare and the theatre a way in to reading Anthony and Cleopatra theatrically. Through analyses of key theatre and film productions, an account of the historical and theatrical conditions in which the play was first produced, and a scene-by-scene account of how the play might be approached in performance, the Handbook focuses on the exciting challenges of staging the notorious lovers and their world.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements.- General Editor's Preface.- The Text and Early Performances.- Commentary.- The Play's Sources and Cultural Context.- Key Performances and Productions.- The Play on Screen.- Critical Assessments.- Further Reading.- Index.

O autorze

BRIDGET ESCOLME is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Her publications include Talking to the Audience: Shakespeare, Performance, Self (2004).

Blurb

This Shakespeare Handbook offers a stimulating and accessible guide to Antony and Cleopatra as theatre. It focuses on the challenges of bringing the notorious lovers and their world to the stage, and explores both recent and Renaissance theatrical approaches.

A scene-by-scene account of the play examines the various ways in which the play can be performed, and shows the characters as theatrical beings, in dynamic relationship with both each other and the audience. Lively, critical close readings of key stage and film versions demonstrate the importance of every element of the theatre event in the interpretation of this play's startling shifts from passion to pragmatism, comedy to tragedy, grandeur to irony. The play is contextualised historically, culturally and in terms of its sources, and suggestions for further reading guide the student through the play's critical reception.