Antony and Cleopatra

Mark Antony, one of the three rulers of the Roman world, has all but abandoned his duties in Rome for the arms of Cleopatra, the magnetic queen of Egypt. Their love is extravagant, public, and politically ruinous, and when the cold, calculating Octavius Caesar moves to consolidate power, Antony is forced to choose between the empire and the woman who defines him.

Torn between Alexandria and Rome, Antony marries Octavius's sister in a doomed bid for peace, then returns to Cleopatra and open war. Battles are lost as much through passion and miscalculation as through arms, and the lovers are driven toward a famous, tragic end in which pride, rumor, and grief prove as deadly as any sword.

Sweeping across the ancient Mediterranean, Shakespeare's tragedy sets the intimate against the imperial, contrasting Roman severity with Egyptian sensuality. Anchored by one of his greatest female roles, Antony and Cleopatra is a mature, expansive meditation on love, power, and the myths lovers make of themselves.