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Caesar and Cleopatra (play)
Play by George Bernard Shaw From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Caesar and Cleopatra (Shavian: ·𐑕𐑰𐑟𐑩𐑮 𐑨𐑯𐑛 ·𐑒𐑤𐑰𐑩𐑫𐑐𐑨𐑑𐑮𐑩) is a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw that depicts a fictionalised account of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. It was first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in Shaw's 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed in a single staged reading at Newcastle upon Tyne in March 1899, to secure the copyright. The play was produced in New York in 1906 and in London in 1907. It has been adapted for cinema, radio and television.
The role of Caesar was first played by Johnston Forbes-Robertson; subsequently the part has been played by actors including Alan Badel, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Cedric Hardwicke, Rex Harrison, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Claude Rains and Godfrey Tearle. Cleopatra was played first by Gertrude Elliott and later by, among others, Peggy Ashcroft, Claire Bloom, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Vivien Leigh, Lilli Palmer, Vanessa Redgrave and Dorothy Tutin
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Background and first productions
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Shaw objected to the general adulation of Shakespeare, which he dubbed "Bardolatry",[1] and set his own Caesar and Cleopatra against Antony and Cleopatra, claiming that his characters were "real" as opposed to Shakespeare's, who were "love-obsessed".[2] In an appraisal of Julius Caesar for The Saturday Review Shaw expressed his "revulsion of indignant contempt at this travestying of a great man as a silly braggart".[3]
Shaw began writing the play in April 1898 and finished it by the end of the year.[4] He based his plot on Theodor Mommsen's The History of Rome. He said, "I took the chronicle without alteration from Mommsen ... I found that Mommsen had conceived Caesar as I wished to present him". In Mommsen’s admiring depiction of Caesar as "the entire and perfect man" Shaw found the model for his hero and said that he had stuck nearly as closely to Mommsen as Shakespeare had to Plutarch or Holinshed.[3] He misconstrued Mommsen's account of Cleopatra's age when she met Caesar: Shaw made her sixteen – five years younger than the historical Cleopatra. This suited Shaw, who was anxious to ensure that there should be no hint of a sexual liaison between the title characters.[5]
The part of Cleopatra was written with the actress Mrs Patrick Campbell ("Stella") in mind. She and her company gave the first performance of the play while on tour, in Newcastle – a one-off performance on 15 March to secure the British copyright of the play. She did not care for the piece, and particularly for Shaw's conception of Cleopatra: her biographer Margot Peters writes that she turned "Shaw's mere kitten of a Cleopatra into an experienced pantheress".[6] According to Peters, "She did not appreciate Shaw’s anti-romantic drama with its wise and urbane Caesar spurning the petty wiles of a very young Cleopatra and gladly turning her over to Antony". Campbell realised that the central role was Caesar, and having recently played Ophelia to Forbes-Robertson's Hamlet she did not intend to play second fiddle again.[6] When the play was published as one of Shaw's Three Plays for Puritans he inscribed a copy for her: "To silly Stella who threw Caesar and Cleopatra into the waste paper basket, from G. Bernard Shaw".[7]
Forbes-Robertson's performance as Hamlet in 1897 had impressed Shaw. He later said, "I wrote Caesar and Cleopatra for Forbes-Robertson, because he is the classic actor of the day, and had a right to require such a service from me. Without him Caesar and Cleopatra would not have been written".[8]
New York and London premieres
After its one-off copyright performance, the play was not staged until 1906, when Max Reinhardt presented it in a German translation in Berlin on 31 March 1906. The production was a failure, which Shaw attributed to the heavy cuts Reinhardt made in the text, rendering the action and the characters incomprehensible to audiences.[9]
The first full staging of Shaw's text was on 30 October 1906 in the New Amsterdam Theatre, New York.[10] It ran there during the rest of the year and the production was then moved to London, after a provincial try-out, opening at the Savoy Theatre on 25 November 1907, running until 21 December.[11]
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Original casts
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Synopsis
A strange "old gentleman" whom the young Cleopatra encounters near the royal palace encourages her to assert her authority as queen against her brother and rival for the throne, the boy-king Ptolemy. The old gentleman is Julius Caesar, as she soon realises. In Alexandria Ptolemy is controlled by his Roman guardian Pothinus, who coordinates resistance to Cleopatra's claim to the throne. Caesar occupies the Lighthouse of Alexandria to assert his own authority. Cleopatra is smuggled to him in a rolled carpet. When Caesar has suppressed all resistance Pothinus warns him that Cleopatra is not to be trusted. This is manifest when Pothinus is murdered on Cleopatra 's secret orders. The murder causes a new revolt, which Caesar again puts down. After vanquishing Ptolemy's troops, Caesar leaves for Rome, having appointed one of his generals as governor. He promises to send the dashing Mark Antony to Egypt to console Cleopatra.
Detailed plot
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Prologue and Alternative to the Prologue
The play has a prologue and an "Alternative to the Prologue". The prologue consists of the Egyptian god Ra addressing the audience directly, as if he could see them in the theatre (i.e., deliberately breaking the fourth wall). He says that Pompey represents the old Rome and Caesar represents the new Rome. The gods favoured Caesar, according to Ra, because he "lived the life they had given him boldly". Ra recounts the conflict between Caesar and Pompey, their battle at Pharsalus, and Pompey's eventual assassination in Egypt at the hands of Lucius Septimius.
In "An Alternative to the Prologue", we find Cleopatra has been driven into Syria by her brother, Ptolemy, with whom she is vying for the Egyptian throne. A messenger appears to warn the captain of Cleopatra's guard that Caesar has landed and is invading Egypt. The messenger warns that Caesar's conquest is inevitable and irresistible. A Nubian watchman flees to Cleopatra's palace and warns those inside that Caesar and his armies are less than an hour away. The guards, knowing of Caesar's weakness for women, plan to persuade him to proclaim Cleopatra—who may be controllable—Egypt's ruler instead of Ptolemy. They try to locate her, but are told by Cleopatra's nurse, Ftatateeta, that she has run away.
Act I
The act opens with Cleopatra sleeping between the paws of a Sphinx. Caesar, wandering lonely in the desert night, comes upon the sphinx and speaks to it profoundly. Cleopatra wakes and, still unseen, replies. At first Caesar imagines the sphinx is speaking in a girlish voice, then, when Cleopatra appears, that he is experiencing a dream or, if he is awake, a touch of madness. She, not recognising Caesar, thinks him a nice old man and tells him of her childish fear of Caesar and the Romans. Caesar urges bravery when she must face the conquerors, then escorts her to her palace. Cleopatra reluctantly agrees to maintain a queenly presence, but greatly fears that Caesar will eat her anyway. When the Roman guards arrive and hail Caesar, Cleopatra suddenly realises he has been with her all along. She sobs in relief, and falls into his arms.
Act II
In a hall on the first floor of the royal palace in Alexandria, Caesar meets King Ptolemy (aged ten), his tutor Theodotus (very aged), Achillas (general of Ptolemy's troops), and Pothinus (his guardian). Caesar greets all with courtesy and kindness, but inflexibly demands a tribute whose amount disconcerts the Egyptians. As an inducement, Caesar says he will settle the dispute between the claimants for the Egyptian throne by letting Cleopatra and Ptolemy reign jointly. However, the rivalry exists because, even though the two are siblings and already married in accordance with the royal law, they detest each other with a mutual antipathy no less murderous for being childish. Each claims sole rulership. Caesar's solution is acceptable to none and his concern for Ptolemy makes Cleopatra fiercely jealous.
The conference deteriorates into a dispute, with the Egyptians threatening military action. Caesar, with two legions (three thousand soldiers and a thousand horsemen), has no fear of the Egyptian army but learns Achillas also commands a Roman army of occupation, left after a previous Roman incursion, which could overwhelm his relatively small contingent.
As a defensive measure, Caesar orders Rufio, his military aide, to take over the palace, a theatre adjacent to it, and Pharos, an island in the harbour accessible from the palace via a causeway that divides the harbour into eastern and western sections. From Pharos, which has a defensible lighthouse at its eastmost tip, those of Caesar's ships anchored on the east side of the harbour can return to Rome. His ships on the west side are to be burnt at once. Britannus, Caesar's secretary, proclaims the king and courtiers prisoners of war, but Caesar, to the dismay of Rufio, allows the captives to depart. Only Cleopatra (with her retinue), fearing Ptolemy's associates, and Pothinus (for reasons of his own), choose to remain with Caesar. The others all depart.
Caesar, intent on developing his strategy, tries to dismiss all other matters but is interrupted by Cleopatra's nagging for attention. He indulges her briefly while she speaks amorously of Mark Antony, who restored her father to his throne when she was twelve years old. Her gushing about the youth and beauty of Mark Antony are unflattering to Caesar, who is middle-aged and balding. Caesar nevertheless, impervious to jealousy, makes Cleopatra happy by promising to send Mark Antony back to Egypt. As she leaves, a wounded soldier comes to report that Achillas, with his Roman army, is at hand and that the citizenry is attacking Caesar's soldiers. A siege is imminent.
Watching from a balcony, Rufio discovers the ships he was ordered to destroy have been torched by Achillas's forces and are already burning. Meanwhile, Theodotus, the savant, arrives distraught, anguished because fire from the blazing ships has spread to the Alexandrian library. Caesar does not sympathise, saying it is better that the Egyptians should live their lives than dream them away with the help of books. As a practicality, he notes the Egyptian firefighters will be diverted from attacking Caesar's soldiers. At scene's end, Cleopatra and Britannus help Caesar don his armour and he goes forth to battle.
Act III
A Roman sentinel stationed on the quay in front of the palace looks intently, across the eastern harbour, to the west, for activity at the Pharos lighthouse, now captured and occupied by Caesar. He is watching for signs of an impending counterattack by Egyptian forces arriving via ship and by way of the Heptastadion (a stone causeway spanning the five miles of open water between the mainland and Pharos Island). The sentinel's vigil is interrupted by Ftatateeta (Cleopatra's nurse) and Apollodorus the Sicilian (a patrician amateur of the arts), accompanied by a retinue of porters carrying a bale of carpets, from which Cleopatra is to select a gift appropriate for Caesar.
Cleopatra emerges from the palace, shows little interest in the carpets, and expresses a desire to visit Caesar at the lighthouse. The sentinel tells her she is a prisoner and orders her back inside the palace. Cleopatra is enraged, and Apollodorus, as her champion, engages in swordplay with the sentinel. A centurion intervenes and avers Cleopatra will not be allowed outside the palace until Caesar gives the order. She is sent back to the palace, where she may select a carpet for delivery to Caesar. Apollodorus, who is not a prisoner, will deliver it since he is free to travel in areas behind the Roman lines. He hires a small boat, with a single boatmen, for the purpose.
The porters leave the palace bearing a rolled carpet. They complain about its weight, but only Ftatateeta, suffering paroxysms of anxiety, knows that Cleopatra is hidden in the bundle. The sentinel, however, alerted by Ftatateeta's distress, becomes suspicious and attempts, unsuccessfully, to recall the boat after it departs.
Meanwhile, Rufio, eating dates and resting after the day's battle, hears Caesar speaking sombrely of his personal misgivings and predicting they will lose the battle because age has rendered him inept. Rufio diagnoses Caesar's woes as signs of hunger and gives him dates to eat. Caesar's outlook brightens as he eats them. He is himself again when Britannus exultantly approaches bearing a heavy bag containing incriminating letters that have passed between Pompey's associates and their army, now occupying Egypt. Caesar scorns to read them, deeming it better to convert his enemies to friends than to waste his time with prosecutions; he casts the bag into the sea.
As Cleopatra's boat arrives, the falling bag breaks its prow and it quickly sinks, barely allowing time for Apollodorus to drag the carpet and its queenly contents safe ashore. Caesar unrolls the carpet and discovers Cleopatra, who is distressed because of the rigors of her journey and even more so when she finds Caesar too preoccupied with military matters to accord her much attention. Matters worsen when Britannus, who has been observing the movements of the Egyptian army, reports that the enemy now controls the causeway and is also approaching rapidly across the island. Swimming to a Roman ship in the eastern harbour becomes the sole possibility for escape. Apollodorus dives in readily and Caesar follows, after privately instructing Rufio and Britannus to toss Cleopatra into the water so she can hang on while he swims to safety. They do so with great relish, she screaming mightily, then Rufio takes the plunge. Britannus cannot swim, so he is instructed to defend himself as well as possible until a rescue can be arranged. A friendly craft soon rescues all the swimmers.
Act IV
Six months elapse with Romans and Cleopatra besieged in the palace in Alexandria. Cleopatra and Pothinus, who is a prisoner of war, discuss what will happen when Caesar eventually leaves and disagree over whether Cleopatra or Ptolemy should rule. They part; Cleopatra to be hostess at a feast prepared for Caesar and his lieutenants, and Pothinus to tell Caesar that Cleopatra is a traitress who is only using Caesar to help her gain the Egyptian throne. Caesar considers that a natural motive and is not offended. But Cleopatra is enraged at Pothinus's allegation and secretly orders her nurse, Ftatateeta, to kill him.
At the feast the mood is considerably restrained by Caesar's ascetic preference for simple fare and barley water versus exotic foods and wines. However, conversation grows lively when world-weary Caesar suggests to Cleopatra they both leave political life, search out the Nile's source and a city there. Cleopatra enthusiastically agrees and, to name the city, seeks help from the God of the Nile, who is her favourite god.
The festivities are interrupted by a scream, followed by a thud: Pothinus has been murdered and his body thrown from the roof down to the beach. The besieging Egyptians, both army and civilian, are enraged by the killing of Pothinus, who was a popular hero, and they begin to storm the palace. Cleopatra claims responsibility for the slaying and Caesar reproaches her for taking shortsighted vengeance, pointing out that his clemency towards Pothinus and the other prisoners has kept the enemy at bay. Doom seems inevitable, but then they learn that reinforcements, commanded by Mithridates of Pergamos have engaged the Egyptian army. With the threat diminished, Caesar draws up a battle plan and leaves to speak to the troops. Meanwhile, Rufio realises Ftatateeta was Pothinus's killer, so he kills her in turn. Cleopatra, left alone and utterly forlorn discovers the bloodied body concealed behind a curtain.
Act V
Act V is an epilogue. Amidst great pomp and ceremony, Caesar prepares to leave for Rome. His forces have swept Ptolemy's armies into the Nile, and Ptolemy himself was drowned when his barge sank. Caesar appoints Rufio governor of the province and considers freedom for Britannus, who declines the offer in favour of remaining Caesar's servant. A conversation ensues that foreshadows Caesar's eventual assassination. As the gangplank is being extended from the quay to Caesar's ship, Cleopatra, dressed in mourning for her nurse, arrives. She accuses Rufio of murdering Ftatateeta. Rufio admits the slaying, but says it was not for the sake of punishment, revenge or justice: he killed her without malice because she was a potential menace. Caesar approves the execution because it was not influenced by spurious moralism. Cleopatra remains unforgiving until Caesar renews his promise to send Mark Antony to Egypt. That renders her ecstatic as the ship starts moving out to sea.
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Themes
Shaw had a long fascination with strong leaders, and later in his life he became an admirer of Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler, although he protested at "the silly complaint that I have collapsed into dictator-worship in my old age".[14] At the time of Caesar and Cleopatra, according to his biographer Michael Holroyd he longed for strong leaders – men who were naturally great. The play was, he said, "the first & only dramatization of the greatest man that ever lived ... the projection on the stage of the hero in the big sense of the word".[15] Shaw wanted to prove that it was not love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Caesar. He saw the Roman imperialism in ancient Egypt as similar to the British imperialism that was occurring during his time.[16] Caesar understands the importance of good government, and values these things above art and love.[17]
Shaw ignored the reality of Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra: within ten months of his arrival in Egypt the historical Caesar was the father of her son Cesarion.[18]
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Revivals
- 1913: Caesar and Cleopatra was revived at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in April.[19] Forbes-Robertson and Elliott reprised their roles.[20]
- 1925: In New York, the Theatre Guild presented the play to open its new playhouse, with Lionel Atwill and Helen Hayes in the title roles.[21]
- 1925: Barry Jackson presented a new production at the Kingsway Theatre in May. His Birmingham Repertory company was headed by Cedric Hardwicke and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies in the title roles.[22]
- 1932: In a revival at the Old Vic in September 1932, directed by Harcourt Williams, Malcolm Keen and Peggy Ashcroft took the title roles, with a supporting cast that included Alastair Sim and Roger Livesey.[23]
- 1949: Hardwicke, Lilli Palmer, and Bertha Belmore starred in a production at the National Theatre on Broadway.[24]
- 1951: Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh played the title roles in repertory with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra at the St James's Theatre, London, and later on Broadway.[19][21]
- 1956: A second production by the Birmingham Repertory company played at the Old Vic in July. Geoffrey Bayldon and Doreen Aris played Caesar and Cleopatra, with Bernard Hepton and Ronald Hines in supporting roles.[25]
- 1971: John Gielgud played Caesar at the Chichester Festival opposite Anna Calder-Marshall, with a supporting cast including Harold Innocent, Michael Aldridge, Hubert Gregg and Peter Egan.[26] Gielgud had been Shaw's first choice for the role in the 1945 film but the actor declined the offer after meeting the director Gabriel Pascal and taking an instant dislike to him.[27]
- 1977: Rex Harrison played Caesar on Broadway, recreating his Academy Award-nominated role from the film Cleopatra (1963). Elizabeth Ashley portrayed Cleopatra.[21]
- 1983: Douglas Rain played Caesar and Marti Maraden Cleopatra in a Shaw Festival production.[28]
- 2008: A Stratford Shakespeare Festival production, directed by Des McAnuff, starred Christopher Plummer as Caesar and Nikki M. James as Cleopatra. The production was filmed and also streamed live to numerous cinemas in Canada.[29]
- 2019: A production by The Gingold Theatrical Group ran off-Broadway in the Theatre Row Building, starring Robert Cuccioli and Brenda Braxton, directed by David Staller.[30]
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Film, television and audio versions
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Caesar and Cleopatra was the basis for the lavish 1945 motion picture Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Claude Rains as Caesar and Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra and produced by Gabriel Pascal. Shaw collaborated closely on this production. After seeing part of the filming of the movie at Denham Studios in London, Shaw remarked, "What scope! What limitless possibilities!... Here you have the whole world to play with!"[17] The film cost three times its original budget and was rated "the biggest financial failure in the history of British cinema".[31] It was poorly received by British critics, although American reviews were friendlier. Shaw was disappointed by the finished film; he thought its lavishness nullified the drama and he considered the film "a poor imitation of Cecil B. de Mille".[32]
The play has been adapted for television. The first version was in 1956, as part of the anthology series Producers' Showcase, on NBC. It starred Cedric Hardwicke as Caesar and Claire Bloom as Cleopatra, with Farley Granger, Jack Hawkins and Judith Anderson. A second version, shown in 1976, was also broadcast by NBC, and starred Alec Guinness as Caesar and Geneviève Bujold as Cleopatra, with Clive Francis, Margaret Courtenay and Iain Cuthbertson.
A 1965 audio adaptation of the play was produced by Caedmon Records and directed by Anthony Quayle, starring Max Adrian as Caesar and Claire Bloom as Cleopatra, with Judith Anderson as Ftatateeta, Corin Redgrave as Apollodorus, and Jack Gwillim as Rufio. This version used the Alternative Prologue.[33]
BBC Radio has broadcast four adaptations of Caesar and Cleopatra:
- 1952, with Godfrey Tearle and Claire Bloom in the title roles.[34]
- 1963, with Patrick Troughton and Vanessa Redgrave.[35]
- 1966, with Maurice Denham and Dorothy Tutin.[36]
- 1975, with Alan Badel as Caesar and Sarah Badel as Cleopatra.[37]
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Musical adaptation
Caesar and Cleopatra was adapted for the 1968 Broadway musical Her First Roman by Ervin Drake; it was not a success.[21]
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External links
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