The opportunities to see George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra in England have been rare. There was a major film in 1945, with an excellent cast which included Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Flora Robson, Cecil Parker, Francis L. Sullivan and Stewart Granger.
There were productions in London in 1951 with Laurence Olivier, in Chichester in 1971 with John Gielgud and on television in 1977 with Alec Guinness. And that is it; nothing since.
I discovered there had been a production in Canada at the Stratford Festival in Ontario with Christopher Plummer and that it had been filmed before a live audience in 2009 and could be viewed online. Shaw modelled Caesar and Cleopatra on the then-fashionable pseudo-historical dramas of the day and conceived it on the grand scale as a spectacular production for Johnston Forbes-Robertson, one of the finest actors of his time.
Shaw wanted his history play to be as far removed from Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra as possible. There is no blank verse. His dialogue is colloquial and deliberately anachronistic. The historical characters, living in 48BC, talk like his Victorian/Edwardian audience did in 1907AD, the date of the play’s London premiere.
Shaw’s Caesar, no longer young, is a pacifist, who is celebrated for his clemency. He rules without punishment, without revenge, without judgement. Christopher Plummer is good value. He has the authority, the inner steely strength and the dry wit. He is also a good talker, an absolutely essential Shavan ingredient.
Shaw’s Cleopatra is a sixteen-year-old sex-kitten, addicted to instant gratification and cruel vengeance, who, initially, behaves like a spoiled child and frightened schoolgirl. Nikki M James is terrific, blazing away. There is absolutely nothing erotic going on between Caesar and her. Their relationship is parent/child. Caesar grooms her to be queen.
Shaw’s play improves dramatically in Acts IV and V when Des McAnuff’s production is given a big lift by Timothy Stickney as Pothinus, Regent of Egypt, who warns Caesar not to trust Cleopatra and pays a heavy price for doing so.
Caesar and Cleopatra can be viewed on the Stratfest channel by following this link.
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website. 
