Simon Godwin's modern-dress version gives it a contemporary sheen, but also a more propulsive cinematic flow, too. As splendidly designed by Hildegard Bechtler, it is both truly epic and intimate, as required.
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The entire endeavour shines but it is the couple at its heart that makes the play live or die and Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo are simply terrific as the lovers who tempt fate one too many times.
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Simon Godwin directs a terrific and epic National Theatre production, filled with passion and delusion.
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Come for a tour-de-force from Fiennes, but the delights here are spread right across the board, right down to the performing snake.
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Sophie Okonedo is a magnificent Cleopatra to Ralph Fiennes’s jaded Antony in this rollicking political thriller.
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It’s a long evening but an increasingly rewarding one, which needs only fine-tuning from Fiennes to become perhaps a great one.
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The great merit of Simon Godwin's fast-moving, modern dress and hugely intelligent production in the vast space of the Olivier, is its extreme lucidity. A lot goes on, but we always understand its meaning and its emotional impact.
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Okonedo is magical in the first half, and Fiennes dominates the second...But this interpretation is full of detail, intelligence and humanity.
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