SOURCE: Hopkins, Lisa. Review of Antony and Cleopatra. Early Modern Literary Studies 8, no. 2 (September 2002): 19.1-2.

In the following review of the 2002 Royal Shakespeare Company staging of Antony and Cleopatra under the direction of Michael Attenborough, Hopkins contends that the production was “unfocused” and “alarmingly short.”

Going to see Antony and Cleopatra can sometimes be a daunting experience because it is so long. With this production, however, the converse very nearly applies: it is alarmingly short, with events unfolding at such breakneck speed that if you so much as blink you will probably have missed a crucial plot development. The Battle of Actium was won and lost by the (admittedly late) interval, and the entire thing comes in at only just over three hours. One of the principal reasons for this remarkable despatch is that a lot of lines have been cut, and the other is the simplicity and...