Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion, a 70-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s epic love story, conceived, edited and directed by visionary director and disrupter, Robert Chevara, will get its world premiere at London’s dynamic new queer performance venue, The Divine, in Dalston, from Thursday 12 September to Friday 27 September.
Press Night: Monday 16 September at 7.30pm
An intoxicating and dizzying mix of Shakespeare’s finest poetry and electrifying queer club culture, Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion is produced by and starring as Cleopatra, East London’s scene-maker and provocateur, Jonny Woo.
The setting is a club, based on Berlin’s hedonistic techno temple Berghain, where the hours disappear and the lovers cling together, unable to part, fuelled by love, lust and drugs which no longer offer highs but leave them in a permanent state of deluded grandeur and paranoia. So exhausted that they cannot part but cleave to each other symbiotically…
Chevara’s radical, queer re-telling of the Shakespeare classic with a small, all-gay male cast, places in sharp relief the relationship of our two protagonists. It explores their ruined, alchemical relationship and delves into the psyche of two people whose narcissism and self-destructiveness make them both impossible and alluring.
As well as Antony and Cleopatra, the cast also features Charmian, Cleopatra’s confidant, and Dolabella, a rare, trustworthy Roman envoy to Caesar.
The production, at a tight 70 minutes, is a rush as intense as the amyl nitrite the cast inhale at the start of their night. Karaoke moments break up the text as they flounce their ego and reveal their vulnerability through song. The styling represents contemporary queer club culture.
Chevara says “I saw Peter Brook work with Glenda Jackson and Alan Howard on a production of Antony and Cleopatra as a kid. As I watched them in rehearsals I dreamed up an alternate version. In Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion they are lovers who live in a constant public gaze. Lit by lightening”
After first developing the work at his former iconic East London queer venue The Glory, producer and star Jonny Woo decided that the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion would be a perfect fit for his new and bigger venue, The Divine. “We have a wonderful lighting rig, and the space is so intense. Cleopatra will glisten under yellow shimmery lights like the Egyptian sun, with Antony breaking down in the pulsing red club strobes.”
Cast:
William McGeough – Antony
Jonny Woo – Cleopatra
Alexis Gregory – Charmian
Jonathan Blake – Dolabella
Conceived, Edited and Directed by Robert Chevara
