Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

June 1, 2014

Octavius Caesar had virtually gained control of the ancient world before the kick-off. On press night, Clive Wood as Antony was still recovering from a virus that had made him miss several previews, and James Hayes was laid up with an injury and unable to play Lepidus. Even Cleopatra was sporting an ankle support. Fortunately, Christopher Saul read in efficiently as Lepidus and Wood’s performance seemed in no way attenuated by his recent illness. His Antony is indomitable in manner, even if at every significant point he loses in actual battle. Jonathan Munby’s production incorporates a number of classical verse extracts in musical form, but it is largely staged in standard Jacobean dress rather than togas and eastern doodads, so Wood’s Antony looks and feels like a blunt Englishman rather than a rarefied Roman. […continued]

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