Cleopatra
Joy Yvonne Jones stars in her own adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra, and while it’s not quite a one-woman show, the only other person on stage is a mute servant-girl. Removed from the title, Antony is literally reduced to playing in the background, appearing only in occasional video segments that render him as a modern-day smooth operator who finds himself smitten with an African queen. This is to be her story, and a triumphant one at that: a narrator informs us at the outset, “Your life is but a bookmark in the story of her success,” and Cleopatra herself follows soon after with the blunt delclaration, “There is no limit to my ambition.”
Jones has the bearing and presence to deliver the line, and the chops and voice to blend her words and the Bard’s without making a mushy mash of it. (A possible exception: here and there, she slips in some modern sass, e.g., quipping “My ass” in response to Antony’s “Brutus is an honorable man.”) But despite that early declaration, and despite her grand and convincing self-regard — “My ego trip is a journey of self-love, self-appreciation,” etc. — the story is largely one of loss and defeat. Her younger brother drives her out of Egypt, forcing her to turn to Rome for assistance. Julius Caesar allies with her and gives her a son, but she bemoans the way the baby leaches the nutrients from her bones, and Caesar not only goes and gets himself killed, he then hands the throne to his nephew Octavian. (Cleopatra’s bellowed response: “Who the fuck is Octavian and why does he matter?”) So then it’s on to Antony and more children, but he goes and marries elsewhere as well, and when he finally comes ‘round and takes her side, well…the Battle of Actium. And it gets worse from there.
Through it all, Jones’ head remains held high and her wardrobe remains on point — the winding of her headdress at the denouement is mesmerizing. But while she dismisses the idea that she was a simple seductress, she also notes that in living life by her rules, she used the tools at her command…which look an awful lot like the tools of seduction. Never mind; what matters in the end is just this: “You will never forget me.”
When
Ongoing until Sunday, September 8, 2024
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm |
| Fridays, 7:30pm |
| Saturdays, 7:30pm |