Dead bodies on a stage make a searing impression on an audience; Shakespeare's Othello can conveniently end with three corpses on stage. That textually logical effect and purposeful staging of the Moor of Venice was a large part of our winning First Place at the Third Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival last year. Perhaps two will do the trick this time.
Our staging of Shakespeare's Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra for the Fourth Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival, hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, goes to finale black with both Marc Antony and Cleopatra dead on the stage and Octavius Caesar pronouncing the "solemnity" of it all.
After presenting it to an audience on December 20th, we are now in the exciting process of editing the video from three cameras, shot over multiple performances, and producing the highest quality 20-minute DVD we can. We must submit that to the festival by January 15th and then anxiously wait, hoping we make the finals. The 12 finalists, chosen by international judges after viewing some 3-dozen plus DVDs, will then present their show live in Hong Kong in May. The lucky over-all winner there gets a trip to London and the Shakespeare tour. Can we do it again? Who knows?
I must say that the raw video is quite good and I am very pleased with what is coming together in the editing studio in the Television Department of BFSU. Some still shots have come in from the live performance; they are posted below.
Marc Antony -- Liu Siyang Cleopatra -- Guo Wenna Octavius Ceasar -- Chen Tao
Marc Antony and Cleopatra: "Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving, And blemish Caesar's triumph."
"O, make an end of what I have begun. Let him that loves me strike me dead."
"And welcome, welcome! die where thou hast lived; quicken with kissing: had my lips that power, thus would I wear them out."
"The crown of the earth doth melt. My Lord! O, withered is the garland of the war, The soldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls are level now with men; the odds are gone, and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon."
Octavius and Cleopatra: "Cleopatra, know, we will extenuate rather than enforce; if you apply yourself to our intents, Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find a benefit in this change..."
"This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels, I am possess'd of: 'tis exactly valued; Not petty things admitted."
"Therefore be cheered; make not your thoughts your prisons; no, dear queen; For we intend so to dispose you as Yourself shall give us counsel."
"Our care and pity is so much upon you, that we remain your friend; and so, adieu."
"Peace, peace! Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, that sucks the nurse asleep?"
"...but she looks like sleep. As she would catch another Antony In her strong toil of grace."
