Word: caesar
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STARTFORD, Conn.--The most significant aspect of the current is the fact that it is playing in repertory with Julius Caesar (reviewed here in a previous issue), whose story it continues. Thus one has the rare opportunity of seeing the pair of plays in order--even, as I did, in the course...
...only this, but both shows have been directed by Michael Kahn, who says they constitute "one work." They really don't, but not for want of separates the end of Caesar from the beginning of Antony, there was a gap of some seven or eight years in the writing, and the two works came out highly dissimilar dramatically and stylistically. Ceasar is austere in vocabulary, drivingly direct in line; Antony is verbally opulent and weak in plot. Caesar attempts less, does it magnificently, and is an enormously effective stage-piece; Antony embraces more than it can handle, with only intermittent...
Still, Kahn deserves high marks for trying to unify the two works. Both productions use the same basic raked stage, designed by Robin Wagner, and the Roman scenes in Antony enjoy the same upstage set as many of those in Caesar. Jane Greenwood's costumes for the Romans in both plays are the same or similar. And the three important characters who are present in both plays--Antony, Octavious, and Lepidus--have the virtue of being portrayed by the same actors...
Kahn cut quite a bit of text in Caesar. Although Antony is one of the longer plays in the canon, Kahn has made only a handful of tiny snips. He is to be commended for keeping the text almost intact, but censured at the same time for allowing so many scenes to drag. The result is a performance that, with one 15-minute intermission, runs to three and a half hours...
Paul Hecht is the current Antony, Young and smooth-shaven in Caesar, Hecht appears graying and bearded in the sequel, where he ages from 43 to 53. He looks fine in both plays. Vocally, however, he is unconvincing in Caesar. He is on the whole more persuasive in the second play. But in 22 scenes--and Hecht is not able to sustain his performance throughout. He nevertheless has some admirable moments--such as the nicely ruminative "There's a great spirit gone" passage; the speech beginning, "O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more and the point when...