Antony and Cleopatra | Act 1, Scene 3 | Royal Shakespeare Company

Watch Josette Simon as Cleopatra and Antony Byrne as Antony, in Shakespeare's great tragedy.
Antony & Cleopatra is directed by Iqbal Khan for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It transfers to the Barbican, London this autumn, as part of our Rome season.

[hifrommike]

It has been said that Cleopatra is Shakespeare's most complex portrait of a woman, & this production (based on this scene) gets that.

[thegenderfluidthing]

rly enjoyed Cleopatra's characterization here, great job bringing the queen to life! (when you read too much of the plays you forget Shakespeare's supposed to be watched lol)

[leohan]

Yes, Cleopatra was historically Greek (though still debatable). But this argument is only upheld by those who clearly haven't read Shakespeare's play, who, along with his contemporaries, conceived Cleopatra as a BLACK queen - 'with Phoebus' amorous pinches BLACK' - of a BLACK culture. This characterisation is integral to his exploration of opposites, between the white/male/militaristic/Roman Antony and the Cleopatra; it also allowed him to, through superficial opposites, draw veiled comparisons with Queen Elizabeth I. Historical trivia just isn't a substitute for intellect.

[carolezaza]

The director in me is in a street fight with my passion for the words. I wanted, soooo badly to love this clip but I don't. It is not a comedy. It is a power struggle of epic proportions because they have both 'given' into passion, which is derided by society, in both countries. A little nervous humour would have set up the 'confrontation' beautifully, but it makes Cleopatra 'common' when she tries to act like a silly schoolgirl. Just my opinion folks.

[claudiozuniga]

Reading the comments is a sad because then you realize the marvelous and unique sense that we are the stupendeous INFINITY OF STUPIDITY.
Is just a play writen by one of the unique genius Mr. Shakespeare, master of lunguage and probably there were foreings in England by the time he live. Read some history books.
Even here they debate racism. Psycophat.

[greatmomentsofopera]

This is dreadful. Everyone is forcing their voices, and the text just runs on and on with no end stopping or any sense of normal speech. It’s amazing how few actors can do Shakespeare even at this level

[circle]

Ariana is more of a queen than Cleopatra will eve be

[imoo]

Is this a sketch from Mad TV? Eeek. It comes off kind of amateurish.

[rud]

Cleopatra plays herself here as a shouty black mama. Certainly Cleopatra was dark skinned (tawny front) more North African than sub Saharan, with finer features. But the play is not so much about ethnicity, but reason in conflict with passion. But maybe this could be interpreted as exuberance (Black) over coolness (White)

[daleksupreme]

Cleopatra was Macedonian and the ancient egyptians have been genome sequenced and are similar to europeans and turks, they didn't come up from africa they came down. Caesar would have hardly shown cleopatra around Rome if she was a black chick lol this PC shit has got to stop before Caesar himself ends up a gay mexican

[smpelig]

For God shake men! Nobody reads history before making a film or a theatre act? I am so sorry to see an illiterate director put on the role of Cleopatra, the descendant of the Greek Ptolemy, a black actor! I have absolutely no problem with the blacks but I have a serious problem with the ignorant of history directors. They have destroyed every truth and they give to the audience anything perverse they have in their minds. This kind of vulgarity must be punished by the courts.
Cleopatra is a Greek Queen from the Macedon dynasty and her name does not deserve this manipulation. To give you an analogous fact of this perverseness, do you believe for a Greek to make a film where the role of Queen Elizabeth would given to black women? It is a blasphemy even to think it.

[abhishek-euphony-and-euphoria]

No way near cleopatra …she is average ..