Review of: Caesar and Cleopatra

vanloan@nyconstage.org
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Written almost 300 years after Antony and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra serves as something of a prequel to the events in the Shakespearean play. The story concerns Julius Caesar's coming to conquer Egypt for additional tax revenue to support his empire (a quintessential Shavian theme, money and war as a means to social progress, serves as the basis for a good number of his works). This time, however, Shaw weaves his socialist arguments around the budding love story between these two world leaders. In typical Shavian fashion, a quandary of sorts presents itself in the fact that Caesar is 50ish and Cleopatra is 16.

The play opens with Caesar's soldiers storming the palace looking for the queen. Ftatateeta (the mispronunciation of her name is a running gag in the play), Cleopatra's guardian is tortured into revealing Cleopatra's whereabouts (she has fled into the desert). Meanwhile, Caesar has taken a stroll into the desert to calm his nerves and converse with the gods. Coming upon the famous Egyptian Sphinx (nicely recreated by scenic designer Sarah B. Brown), Caesar pauses to reflect on his legacy and comes upon the young girl hiding between the statue's paws. She is terrified that Caesar will eat her as she has heard that is what Romans do to those they conquer. He assures her this is not the case and the love story begins.

Written in 1898 for his volume Three Plays for Puritans, Shaw establishes the themes he will use to greater effect in his classic Pygmalion. Caesar feels it is duty to educate the young princess in the ways of queenly rule and in the process he falls in love with her (while also confronting his own mortality). Yet, even at this early stage in her life, Cleopatra knows what she wants and it is a younger more virile man (it is of course Marc Antony who visited Egypt earlier on a reconnaissance mission). And she is smart enough to know that she can manipulate Caesar into getting it for her. The play becomes a verbal duet between the two protagonists who banter and maneuver to gain the upper hand. Cleopatra's rise to power complements Caesar's graceful decline from old warrior into learned philosopher ("murder will always beget murder"). In the end, however, Cleopatra pays a heavy price for her demands.

It's this witty repartee that makes the play work (the historical pageantry gets a little clunky a lot of the time). The Resonance Ensemble gives a creditable production of this little seen early work. Director Kent Paul carries off the crowded court scenes with the flair of a military tactician and Eric Overmyer's adaptation gives a good sense of history (48 B.C.) without loosing the flavor of the author. Shaw, the avid feminist gives Cleopatra the best lines and the attractive Wrenn Schmidt carries them with an aplomb that is exceptional. She is nearly perfect in her evolution from fearful, hesitant girl princess into a mature young woman capable of ruling a country. It is also enjoyable to watch how she learns to use her sexuality to achieve results. It's an eyeful of a performance. Chris Ceraso holds his own as Caesar who we watch slowly coming to accept his mortality with the same pragmatism and dignity that once enabled him to become a world conqueror. Geraldine Librandi milks the innate comedy in the malevolent Ftatateeta for all its worth especially as she is made the gorgon for the entire Roman legion. Krosby J. Rosa has an amusing scene as Ptolemy, Cleopatra's kid brother (whom she quickly dispenses with) but Joe MacDougall is too humorlessly one-note as Caesar's first lieutenant Rufio. Despite the fact its minor league Shaw and 2 ½ hours, the evening moves quickly enough and it's always a pleasure to hear those delectable Shavian witticisms and political aphorisms. A half a loaf of George Bernard Shaw is still worth more than a full breadbasket of some theater today.

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