![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Dozens if not scores of soldiers, guards, and servants dot the landscape. The sets Shaw describes are spectacular beyond belief, with multiple levels, colonnaded porticos, the Pharos lighthouse, a Sphinx (though not THE Sphinx), and a ship at pier. If it were done exactly as written - something I suspect would be a financial impossibility - it would be more elaborate than the most expensive Broadway musical. An afterward provides historical background on some of the points raised in the play. The play comes with not one but two prologues (take your pick), which is about one and a half too many. There is a tremor at the end, though, that gives a hint of what is to come. Shaw presents her as a charming but hopelessly spoiled 16-year-old girl. Cleopatra is not the fading, mercurial enchantress of Shakespeare’s play. Shaw can be funny, serious, tough-minded and sentimental by turns he can also be alternately captivating and tedious. Two points to make about this: one is that it's Bernard Shaw the other is that it's read throughout by the very capable Kimberly Schraf. ![]()
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