Cleopatra is a famous historical figure. But how much do we really know about her?
Virtually everything we’ve learned about the Egyptian’s queen’s 21-year rule and her relationships with the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Marc Antony was written centuries ago by men, who both sexualized and exoticized her and saw her ambition for power as unseemly for a woman.
Enter “Cleopatra,” a world premiere play written by and starring Joy Yvonne Jones that opened Friday at Moxie Theatre, in a coproduction with Loud Fridge Theatre Group. Jones’ one-act play tells Cleopatra’s story from the queen’s own perspective, not from the antiquated male gaze.
Jones’ play was drawn from Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” and other sources, but it’s informed by Jones’ own experience as a strong Black woman, a mother and a poet.
In Jones’ play, Cleopatra is not a casual seductress but a savvy ruler who understands that forging relationships with leaders of the Roman Republic will stabilize her country. Her Cleopatra is keenly aware of the discrimination she faces from Romans as a dark-skinned woman. And when she give birth to Caesar’s son, Caesarean, she suffers from postpartum depression.
As Cleopatra, Jones has a regal, luminous and fiercely in-the-moment presence as she rages, mourns, sings, swoons, roars in pain and silently calculates her declining odds.
Much of the play, which was directed by Andréa Agosto, is delivered in monologue. Although Jones shares the stage in most scenes with actor Kayla Adorno, who plays Cleopatra’s devoted servant Charmian, Adorno has only a few lines. Caesar is never present and Antony is played in pre-recorded film segments by the smooth-talking DeAndre Simmons. A few audience members are also given scripts to perform a line here and there.
The structure of the play is unique, but the staging doesn’t completely work. Charmian seems an afterthought with little to do but move furniture around. The videos sometimes distract from the story, like one of Cleopatra as an apparent reality TV show contestant on something resembling “Love Island.” And the audience line-readings pull the viewer out of the story.
The production features scenery by Eleanor Williams, lighting by Sammy Webster, sound by Estafanía Ricalde and projections by Michael Wogulis.
While I think the play could use more development, I appreciated seeing Cleopatra take back her voice in a freshly imagined way.
Jones’ play arrives at a time when American women’s rights are under increasing attack from a country controlled by older White men. Maybe Cleopatra’s story isn’t such ancient history after all.
‘Cleopatra’
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through Sept. 7
Where: Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Rolando, San Diego
Tickets: $47-$53, general; $20, students
Phone: (858) 598-7620
Online: moxietheatre.com
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