MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A new U.S. staging of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” sets the play in 18th century Haiti on the eve of what would become the most successful slave revolt in history.
The production just opened in Miami Beach and is a trans-Atlantic collaboration of the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, Miami’s GableStage and The Public Theater in New York.
Director Tarell Alvin McCraney says setting the play at a time when Haiti was still a French colony amplifies the tension between Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s legendary romance and the historical power plays that tore them apart.
While still employing Shakespeare’s dialogue, McCraney casts Antony as a French general and Cleopatra as a commanding Haitian queen.
Source: Associated Press
