Antony and Cleopatra Set

We went to see Shakespeare last night with Joanie. We were more successful this time than with last week’s dry run of sorts. This year’s play is “Antony and Cleopatra”, which I had never seen before. This is STL Shakespeare’s 15th season, so the company has already mined the Bard’s folios of all of his most famous works. Pictured is the play’s empty set at intermission. The columns are covered with strips of gold hairdressing highlights foil. They look pretty good.

I have CDO. It’s like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be!

I took the backstage tour, which considering how Spartan the set is this year was less interesting than it has been in past years. I learned that the five massive columns are hollow and open in the back. The guide had an interesting story though. Before each act, the announcer does a mini countdown, “10 minutes until the next act begins, 5 minutes until the next act, 2 minutes…” This is intended to get the audience to their seats. A few years ago, the actor playing Hamlet found himself locked in his backstage trailer. Listening to the countdown, try as he might, he couldn’t get the door open. Finally, with only moments to spare, he was able to jimmy the lock open, using his fake sword.

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac?
He stayed up all night wondering if there really was a dog.

Marc and Cleo made quite the onstage pair, although by the end of the play I was wishing for the asp to get on with it and finish the job of shuffling off both of their mortal coils. A little bit more expedient dying would have been nice on a work night, but such is art, you can’t rush the good stuff. Annoyingly, a helicopter buzzed the play more than a few times. Maybe it was taking photos, but more likely it was waiting for its turn at the Barnes Hospital heliport or just maybe it was just waiting to whisk Marc and Cleo off to the emergency room.