A new production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra begins performances off-Broadway February 18. Directed and revised by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the production is an international collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Miami’s GableStage and Ohio University. Starring Jonathan Cake and Joaquina Kalukango, the show will play a limited engagement through March 23 at The Public Theater.
The classic tale follows a man and a woman who have fallen desperately in love at the fringes of a war-torn empire. But for a soldier set to enforce the imperial will and the queen intent on throwing off the yoke of the empire, there is no place for personal desire. McCraney’s version transports us to 18th century Saint-Domingue on the eve of revolution.
Joining Cake and Kalukango onstage are Henry Stram, Ian Lassiter, Charise Castro-Smith, Chivas Michael, Samuel Collings, Ash Hunter, Chukwudi Iwuji and Sarah Niles.