Tag: Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare – Coriolanus | Review

Title: Coriolanus

Author: William Shakespeare

Type: Fiction/Non-Fiction

Page Count: 136

Rating: 4/5

I wasn’t sure how to categorise this as it’s based on a true story. In fact, it’s pretty similar in vein to Antony and Cleopatra, and the two of them go hand-in-hand as they were his last two tragedies. They also go hand-in-hand for me because I enjoyed them both. There’s something about actual historical historical fiction that I can’t get enough of.

So I was quite happy with this, especially because it’s one of those plays that doesn’t seem to get a huge amount of airtime. I’d love to see a production of it, especially with all of the clothing and the props. Sure, there are a couple of other Shakespeare plays that I’d prefer to see, but still!

Learn more about Coriolanus.


William Shakespeare – Antony and Cleopatra | Review

Title: Antony and Cleopatra

Author: William Shakespeare

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 160

Rating: 8/10

 

William Shakespeare - Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare – Antony and Cleopatra

 

Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, and in many ways it resembles Romeo and Juliet in that a faked death leads to the tragedy and in that it’s also, ostensibly a love story. That’s where the similarities end, though – no, this play has a big focus on war, and indeed it’s based at least partly on historical accounts of both the life of Cleopatra and of the Roman Empire.

One of the interesting things here is the sheer number of different scenes which are included – the story line jumps around what feels like half of the world, and some scenes are solely there for a character to perform a short soliloquy. But it works, it was interesting, and I’ve not really seen it used to such effect before. Must go and watch a performance of it!

 

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

 

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