Antony and Cleopatra

I've been to see this play with my family and friends, my Mum, my Dad, my Sister, my big brother James and Monique, and Nathan was there too. And with all the people there of the audience. A big group of people.

I like Cleopatra in there first, I like. Can we talk about the story first? I want to know about Cleopatra about the love in her, I want to know about the relationship. About the poet of it.

William Shakespeare you meant?

I think I do have the play of Cleopatra in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. That's Romeo and Juliette. Here it is! Its this one. Can you find the love poem in it? Its so hard to find the words of love in there. When Antony leaves Cleopatra he is o in love he says its like he stays there with her, and like she goes where he will instead.

In my book of Lost Love, a celebration of romance from times past, Paul Jenner says that according to Plutarch, a Greek historian, that Cleopatra was not necessarily that beautiful, like she is shown in Queen of Egypt and other films, but she had a magnetic personality.

Oh, I want to know that, what that is.

It means that she was irresistible.

Why was she irresistible?

It was her personality that was so powerful, the way she acted that was like casting a spell over people.

Was she close to her husband?

It says that when she met him, he was a short tempered man, but that she sailed herself down the river in a boat, dressed as Venus with boys dressed like cupid all around her, a scene that looked like she was the goddess of love. Just like Elizabeth Taylor when she played Cleopatra in the film.

In Baz Luhrmann's film of Romeo and Juliette, Juliette's mother dressed up as Cleopatra for their costume party, just like Cleopatra had dressed up as Venus the goddess of love. Because its similar, like Shakespeare, there are other things in common between Romeo and Juliette and Antony and Cleopatra as well. There are wonderful types of films of them. And also like how the couples commit suicide. They are both classic love stories with unhappy endings. In Antony and Cleopatra the lovers die when Caesar takes over their country. Romeo and Juliette is set in Verona. I've written about that in my blog before. But Antony and Cleopatra is set in Egypt. Do you know where that is? Egypt is a country at the top of Africa linking to the Middle East it has many artefacts from the time of the Pharos as well as from the Ottoman Empire. There are a lot of artefacts from there collected in museums. There are also stories in the Bible that take place in Egypt. But that's more about Christian religion and less about the religion of the Pharos.

The love was my favourite part of the play. Even though that was the downfall of the characters. Antony worshiped Cleopatra like a goddess. In the play, like in Romeo and Juliette, they loved each other too much. They became like one person. And died. Cleopatra is one of the most interesting and complicated female roles. She is always performing as though she is an actress as well as a Queen. Two big loves of Shakespeare, romance and theatre, the illusions of which go hand in hand.