I couldn’t quite shake the feeling, however, that it might all be in vain, given that my main problem with the original had been that whilst I liked both Kathryn Hunter and Darrell Da Silva individually, whenever they appeared together it became painfully obvious that they lacked chemistry. Though I think the play is as much about lust as love – without either it entirely falls apart. And without a cast change, I couldn’t see the problem being resolved, no matter how much remixing they did. As it happened, of course, with Kathryn Hunter’s shock departure, the problem was solved – whilst with Katy Stephen’s promotion to the part of Cleopatra, we suddenly had one of the must have tickets of the opening season.
And it was far from a disappointment. Katy Stephens has pretty much been a revelation in everything I’ve seen her in and she’s stunning as Cleopatra. Confident, clever, manipulative, charming, emotional, flirty – from start to finish she was fascinating. There was something reminiscent of Ganymede in her performance, bringing masculinity to the role that worked really well, highlighting her position as a political leader but also heightening her sensuality. In fact, there seemed to be added sensuality throughout – everyone was in lust with everyone else, scarcely able to keep their hands off each other. It provided a real contrast with Rome where the overwhelming sensation was of suppressed emotion, particularly between Octavius and Octavia (I kind of loved the way they drew out this aspect). I also thought Stephens captured the decline of Cleopatra excellently, seeming to age and fall apart as events overtook her. Even though I rather liked Hunter’s more Mediterranean approach to the role, it does make me wonder how awesome Stephen’s could have been if she’d had the whole length of the run to develop the part.
I also felt the transition between Da Silva’s performances as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar to this production had become much smoother, whether this was down to the cast change or because the cast had so recently revisited the earlier play. Though he is never completely convincing as a romantic lover, I enjoyed the impulsiveness of his performance and the aggressive borderline violence of his relationship with Cleopatra. This also fitted well with something I find fascinating within the play – the exploration of the psychology of soldiers. They aren’t presenting a perfect romantic ideal but I don’t think that’s what the play is about and there’s something much grittier and compelling about this unhealthy relationship. They feel like a match for each other. I also think it deepens the agony of the moment when both realises the true extent of their love, only after it is too late.
One of my favourite things about the current ensemble and I suspect it will be equally true of forthcoming ones, is that you can watch any person on the stage and get a complete, detailed and interesting performance. I suspect this is partly due to the shorthand that must have been created over the last two years and partly due to the RSC’s lovely long rehearsal periods. From the beautiful attention to detail of James Tucker (he was particularly excellent during the drunken scenes) to the power and haunting quality an actor like Greg Hicks brings to small, potentially insignificant roles, it creates a virtual feast of performances to enjoy for the audience.
All of which means that this was brimming over with favourite performances for me – with Hannah Young, Brian Docherty, Adam Burton and Jack Whitam all emerging as favourites (I particularly liked that the production seemed to be playing with the concept of femininity within soldiership in the character of Eros, interesting stuff). My favourite-favourite, if you will, had to be Paul Hamilton’s Messenger who brought a comic terror (and flexibility with the text) to the part that I couldn’t resist. “Blo... Bro... Bald! Madam.” In fact the production did an excellent job at balancing the mercurial moods of the play – from the exuberant joy of the early Egyptian scenes to this comedy to the sinister use of slow motion or the chilling decision to have Sandy Neilson’s Lepidus looking on whilst his fate was decided. I thought it had lovely parallels to the same variety within Cleopatra’s character.
The production itself had been stripped back, appearing almost upon a bare stage, which I liked though I did in places miss the rich colours of Egypt from the previous viewings. This, however, allowed the lighting to shine. The Swan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite lit venues. Here we had the stage infused with warm or cold colours to change the mood or reflect characterisation and the striking use of shadows on the back wall making moments ominous. My particular favourite was the scene with the auguries – which was so darkly lit that you could barely see the actors faces and as the mist billowed across the stage, swallowed them completely, allowing them to disappear. I also think changes had been made to the sound design, though I may be wrong, I remember it being brassier accompanied by the plucking of strings – whilst here a more percussive/tympanic sound had been created. It reminded me of heartbeats and the drums of war, which I suspect was the point.
Truthfully though the remixing was a bit of a misnomer – beyond the change of setting, partly required because of the change in the theatre, little had actually altered with the production. As far as I could tell there had been no cutting or altering of scenes and most performances remained fairly faithful to the original decisions made. However, I never had particular issues with the production itself and the change in cast solved most of the problems the original performances had been burdened with. Indeed the strength of the cast generally and the chance to see Katy Stephens as Cleopatra, made this a production to cherish.
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