Antony and Cleopatra | |
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Written by | William Shakespeare |
Directed by | Jon Scoffield |
Starring | |
Music by | Guy Woolfenden |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producers |
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Running time | 161 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 28 July 1974 |
Antony and Cleopatra is a 1974 videotaped television production of William Shakespeare's 1606 play of the same name, produced by ATV (which was distributed internationally by ITC) starring Richard Johnson as Mark Antony, Janet Suzman as Cleopatra, and Patrick Stewart as Enobarbus. It was directed by Jon Scoffield and is an adaptation of Trevor Nunn's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of the play. It features then-little-known Ben Kingsley and Tim Pigott-Smith in small roles.
As of 2014, this production was the last made-for-TV Shakespeare adaptation to have its American network premiere on U.S. commercial television. Laurence Olivier's King Lear was shown in the U.S. in 1984 in syndication rather than on a single network.
The major character of Sextus Pompey, who figures significantly in the plot in Act II, was excised from this production.
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed around 1607, by the King's Men at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre. Its first appearance in print was in the First Folio published in 1623, under the title The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra.
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a general and politician of ancient Rome in the 1st century BC.
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985, the series spanned seven seasons and thirty-seven episodes.
Dame Janet Suzman, is a South African-born British actress who had a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, later replaying many Shakespearean roles on television. In her first film, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), her performance as Empress Alexandra Feodorovna earned her several honours, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Clifford Williams was a Welsh theatre director and stage actor. He was born in Cardiff, Wales, and died in London, England.
Jeffery Kissoon is an actor with credits in British theatre, television, film and radio. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at venues such as the Royal National Theatre, under directors including Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, Janet Suzman, Calixto Bieito and Nicholas Hytner. He has acted in genres from Shakespeare and modern theatre to television drama and science fiction, playing a range of both leading and supporting roles, from Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest, to Malcolm X in The Meeting and Mr Kennedy in the children's TV series Grange Hill.
Cleopatra is a 1934 American epic film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and distributed by Paramount Pictures. A retelling of the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt, the screenplay was written by Waldemar Young and Vincent Lawrence and was based on Bartlett Cormack's adaptation of historical material. Claudette Colbert stars as Cleopatra, Warren William as Julius Caesar, and Henry Wilcoxon as Mark Antony.
Julius Caesar is a 1970 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, directed by Stuart Burge. It stars Charlton Heston as Mark Antony, Jason Robards as Brutus, Richard Johnson as Cassius, John Gielgud as Caesar, Robert Vaughn as Casca, Richard Chamberlain as Octavius, and Diana Rigg as Portia. It was an independent production of Commonwealth United Entertainment, filmed in England and Spain. It is the first film version of the play made in colour.
The Complete Works was a festival set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company, running between April 2006 and March 2007 at Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The festival aimed to perform all of Shakespeare's works, including his sonnets, poems and all 37 plays. The RSC claims that this was their largest project in its history.
Clive Wood is a British actor, known for his television roles in Press Gang (1989–93), The Bill (1990), London's Burning (1996–99), and as King Henry I in The Pillars of the Earth (2010). His stage roles include playing Stephano in The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe (2011) and Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the Haymarket (2014). His film appearances include The Innocent (1985), Buster (1988) and Suffragette (2015).
Charmion, alternatively Charmian, was a trusted servant and advisor to Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives biography of Mark Antony, writes that Charmion managed the principal affairs of Cleopatra's government; therefore, she held an important position in Cleopatra's trusted circle.
Antony and Cleopatra is a play by William Shakespeare.
The Wars of the Roses was a 1963 theatrical adaptation of William Shakespeare's first historical tetralogy, which deals with the conflict between the House of Lancaster and the House of York over the throne of England, a conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. The plays were adapted by John Barton, and directed by Barton and Peter Hall at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The production starred David Warner as Henry VI, Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret of Anjou, Donald Sinden as the Duke of York, Paul Hardwick as the Duke of Gloucester, Janet Suzman as Joan la Pucelle, Brewster Mason as the Earl of Warwick, Roy Dotrice as Edward IV, Susan Engel as Queen Elizabeth and Ian Holm as Richard III.
An Age of Kings is a fifteen-part serial adaptation of the eight sequential history plays of William Shakespeare, produced and broadcast in Britain by the BBC in 1960. The United States broadcast of the series the following year was hosted by University of Southern California professor Frank Baxter, who provided an introduction for each episode specifically tailored for the American audience. At the time, the show was the most ambitious Shakespearean television adaptation ever made and was a critical and commercial success in both the UK and the US. Performed live, all episodes were telerecorded during their original broadcast.
Frederick Gerrard Ridgeway was an Irish-born stage and television actor. He began his professional life pursuing a career as a money broker, but at the age of 42, he decided to take up professional acting. He performed in a variety of stage productions across the UK, including several Richard Bean plays and a number of Royal Shakespeare Company productions. His final role was as Charlie Clench in One Man, Two Guvnors, which toured the UK as well as appearing in Broadway theatre. Prior to its Broadway run, Ridgeway was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, from which he died in November 2012.
Antony and Cleopatra is a 1959 Australian television play based on the play by William Shakespeare.
The Spread of the Eagle is a nine-part serial adaptation of three sequential history plays of William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra, produced by the BBC in 1963. It was inspired by the success of An Age of Kings (1960), which it was unable to rival. The episodes also aired in West Germany in 1968-69 and in 1972.