Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion, a 70-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s epic love story, conceived, edited and directed by visionary director and disrupter, Robert Chevara, will get its world premiere at London’s dynamic new queer performance venue, The Divine, in Dalston, from Thursday 12 September to Friday 27 September.

An intoxicating and dizzying mix of Shakespeare’s finest poetry and electrifying queer club culture, Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion is produced by and starring as Cleopatra, East London’s scene-maker and provocateur, Jonny Woo.  

The setting is a club, based on Berlin’s hedonistic techno temple Berghain, where the hours disappear and the lovers cling together, unable to part, fuelled by love, lust and drugs which no longer offer highs but leave them in a permanent state of deluded grandeur and paranoia. So exhausted that they cannot part but cleave to each other symbiotically…

Chevara’s radical, queer re-telling of the Shakespeare classic with a small, all-gay male cast, places in sharp relief the relationship of our two protagonists. It explores their ruined, alchemical relationship and delves into the psyche of two people whose narcissism and self-destructiveness make them both impossible and alluring.

As well as Antony and Cleopatra, the cast also features Charmian, Cleopatra’s confidant, and Dolabella, a rare, trustworthy Roman envoy to Caesar.

The production, at a tight 70 minutes, is a rush as intense as the amyl nitrite the cast inhale at the start of their night. Karaoke moments break up the text as they flounce their ego and reveal their vulnerability through song. The styling represents contemporary queer club culture.

Chevara says “I saw Peter Brook work with Glenda Jackson and Alan Howard on a production of Antony and Cleopatra as a kid. As I watched them in rehearsals I dreamed up an alternate version. In Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion they are lovers who live in a constant public gaze. Lit by lightening”

After first developing the work at his former iconic East London queer venue The Glory, producer and star Jonny Woo decided that the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion would be a perfect fit for his new and bigger venue, The Divine. “We have a wonderful lighting rig, and the space is so intense. Cleopatra will glisten under yellow shimmery lights like the Egyptian sun, with Antony breaking down in the pulsing red club strobes.”

Conceived, Edited and Directed by Robert Chevara
Jonny Woo – Cleopatra/Producer

Jonny worked notably with Robert Chevara co-starring with Alexis Gregory on his play Sex/Crime at The Glory and transfer to Soho Theatre. Robert told him then he’d be the perfect Cleopatra. Jonny Woo is one of London’s most celebrated alternative cabaret artists. Having cut his teeth back in the early 2000’s in New York, he returned home to fashion himself a scene in East London upon which to develop his inimitable performance style. Anarchic and unpredictable. Confrontational and unapologetic. Jonny Woo packs his shows with original songs, stories, tongue twisters and lip-syncs. Unequivocally English, Jonny Woo entertains with an addictive charm and personality. Jonny has been creating work in London for over a decade. He has been resident at Soho Theatre, having presented eight shows with them including his infamous Gay Bingo which celebrated 10 years at The Hackney Empire last October. He has had work commissioned by The Royal Opera House, The Institute of Contemporary Arts and The Royal Festival Hall. On TV he guest starred as Jonathan Wooster, in I Hate Suzie with Billie Piper.

How would you describe Antony and Cleopatra? 

Antony and Cleopatra: A Dream of Passion is a thrilling rush of a classic play given a vital, exciting and confronting make-over. It’s unashamedly gay: in a dark and passionate way. The cast is small and the playing space is intimate so expect an intense experience. Robert Chevara (our director) has edited the text so only the bones of the relationship between the two lovers can be seen and you really get to feel the magnetism and repulsion which oscillates between them and ultimately destroys them – no spoilers!

What can we expect to see?

The stage is the club space at The Divine so to put it bluntly it’s ‘In Yer Face Shakespeare’. It’s a roller-coaster ride of a show with quiet moments, full-on passionate moments, anger, sorrow, ecstasy and some flashpoint karaoke moments. The lights in The Divine give for dynamic staging and can make the space feel vast and then claustrophobic. It also has a super club sound system so we can really give the sense if not on the dance floor, then it’s not far away. Make no mistake though: the poetry of Shakespeare is at the heart of the piece and (I hope also from myself) there is a lot of great acting and living the moment as Shakespeare wrote and Robert envisaved.

Jonny, apart from popular East London’s scene-maker and provocateur, you are also a producer and an actor. Which is more challenging/rewarding?

Producing is rewarding but can also be very stressful. I’m not a natural organiser. I’m a creator and can come up with ideas but to be honest it’s a challenge to ‘produce’ as it demands a different set of skills and I’m not the greatest when it comes to small administrative details. Luckily my business partner John ‘Sizzle’ Nolan is on hand to help and Robert is great at keeping me on track. I like the sense of accomplishment that you get from producing and the feeling that I’ve made some opportunities for a wider group or community. Acting can be nerve wracking as I suffer from nerves when there are lots of lines. I like to be word perfect which is a blessing and a curse as if a word gets messed up you need to move on. But I love abandoning myself to a role. Inhabiting a character.

How easy or difficult is to play Cleopatra?

It’s really fun. the writing is heightened throughout. It’s not so much ‘camp’ but her words and speech are full of drama and passion and ego. Robert likes us to be ‘big’ if you like. It’s not acting for TV so I really get to enjoy the melodrama and play the poetry. I’m not sure if ‘difficult’ is the word. Some bits of Shakespeare are a mouthful but once you have it, it’s like you can’t say it any other way. Learning the lines is the hardest part. You can decide how well I do. Also I love Shakespeare’s women. And it’s so good to inhabit the female role but not have to be in drag and explore this idea that this feminine energy is within me – a gay man. When you see the play though it’s apparent that Cleopatra, as a queen, is also a ferocious leader and exhibits all the masculine qualities of her counterpart.

How has it been working with William McGeough and Robert Chevara on the project?

Robert is super fun to work with and I love his directing style. So dynamic and punchy. I previously loved working with him and co-star Alexis Gregory on Alexis’s play Sex Crime. Robert is a no nonsense ‘let’s get this up and moving in the space’ kind of director so the physicality of the piece marries with the words from the start. He has so many great references and I’m learning on the job all the time. It will be exciting to work with Will on the show. We had Alan Turkington in the workshop as Antony who was really fun and really professional and kept me on my toes. It’s new territory with Will but we loved him in the audition. His style is very grounded and almost ‘street’ in his delivery of the text and I think it will really change the dynamic between the two main characters, so this version will be very different from the workshop we did last year. He is a terrific actor so hopefully the sparks will fly!

Has the London gay scene changed for the better over the years?

So much. So little. The Divine is in Dalston where there used to be other gay bars which have since closed. Back then, just mid 90’s they had backrooms. That’s definitely changed. H2O, The Artful Dodger to name a couple. I think darkrooms are coming back in London. Also the term ‘gay scene’ has changed and we ‘The Divine’ would be referred to as a queer venue as we serve and are used by all members of the LGBTQI+ spectrum. People still just want to go out and have a good time though. We want to say so much has changed but really the recipe for a good night out is: people like yourself, plenty of booze, drugs if you fancy, music, dancing, a show (sometimes) and often a shag. I think that combo has been around for years! Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – and that’s yer actual french!

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Robert Chevara is a visionary, radical international theatre, multi award winning, film and opera director, disrupter, and artist.  He was the recipient of a cultural study award from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, as well as a Churchill Fellowship award. He won the Prudential award for his production of Carmen (Mid Wales Opera) and best contemporary opera production for Tom Adès’s Powder Her Face (Stockholm). His production of Philip Ridley’s Vincent River had a highly successful run at the Park Theatre and transferred to Trafalgar Studios to great critical acclaim. He also directed Gail Louw’s controversial play Blonde Poison at Brotfabrik in Berlin in its German premiere, plus a double bill of contemporary British operas in Amsterdam for the Dutch National Opéra Academy. Both garnered huge critical success. He also directed a double bill of Puccini operas at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2020. His production of Tennessee Williams’ In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel starring Linda Marlowe at Charing Cross Theatre was named by The Times as one of the 10 best productions of 2017. In the same year he directed the Danish premiere of Mike Bartlett’s Cock and Bull, Britten’s opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Copenhagen Opera Academy) and the world premiere of Alexis Gregory’s Bright Skin Light (Theatre Royal Stratford East). He has also collaborated with Alexis on Safe, a play about LGBT homeless youth, at Soho Theatre and London Theatre Workshop. His production of Tennessee Williams’ Vieux Carré also won Best Revival of a Play Award from Front Row Dress. He directed another rare Tennessee Williams work, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, at Charing Cross Theatre, starring Linda Marlowe and Sara Kestelman and Dominic Argento’s timely Postcard from Morocco in Amsterdam. Numerous theatre productions include Williams’ early piece The Chorus Girl Plays (world premiere – Tennessee Williams Festival, Provincetown), the world premiere of Lionel Bart’s musical Quasimodo (Kings Head Theatre); and The Glass Menagerie (TheatreSpace, London); As You Like It (English Theatre Berlin); Fair!, a play with music, which he co devised with young offenders at Bullwood Hall Maximum security prison for the National Youth Theatre; Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (Hau Theatre, Berlin); Paul Doust’s Hotter than Rochester (Paines Plough); JM Barrie’s Mary Rose; Hamlet and Strindberg’s Easter (all TheatreSpace, London); Eva Peron and The Four Twins, the UK premiere of two one-act plays by Copi (BAC). Robert’s first book was published by Oberon, now Bloomsbury. He has written several opera libretti and had poems published in Not here: a queer anthology of loneliness by Pilot Press. His first poetry collection Perfect. Scar was published by Angelica Books. Most recently Robert directed Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune for the Bridge Theatre at Reset in Brussels, Belgium in a sold out run.

How has it been working with Jonny?

Inspiring. I first went to The Glory to direct Alexis Gregory’s dazzling play Sex/Crime.  It was a two-hander and Lex played one part and Jonny the other. Within a week of us working, I said to Jonny that he would make a great Cleopatra. He had the right mix of fierce, sexy, powerful and vulnerable. I think he was initially daunted by the Shakespeare text, but responded intuitively. There wasn’t ever a barrier and I think he naturally has a great emotional truthfulness. It’s been a joy working on this complex piece together and he’s led the company. When we needed to find a new Antony, over 400 people wrote in via Spotlight to audition. We cut that down to 60 actors who we saw over three days. Jonny was wonderful, read with them all and has invested in the whole process. Roll on the next stage in this play’s progress.

What was the most challenging part directing Antony and Cleopatra?

It’s a play I have always wanted to direct, since I was a kid. Luckily I saw a lot of interesting productions when I was younger, but none, I felt, got to the dark heart of the piece. Somehow they compromised and the essence of a couple who will burn the world to shreds around them because of their private, then very public passions, was always diluted. Or they pulled back from falling over the cliff edge and no-one being able to stop them. In this production, we don’t do that. They face their self destruction full on. And proudly.

How was the idea for this show conceived?

Directing a production of Antony and Cleopatra had been whizzing around my head for a long time. I have been thinking for several years how best to serve the play and try to reveal the raw inner beating heart of A & C.  I had friends who went every weekend, religiously almost, to Berghain, the famous Techno club in Berlin. They were stars there and lived their lives in the public glare of the club. There was an intimacy, a drama, heightened by drugs. Drugs are a huge part of the club scene and emotions and sciences that are already heightened spin out of control when drug taking is such a potent part of the mix. One friend’s heart stopped three times on the dance floor because he OD’d on G. But when the doctors in the hospital told him he couldn’t ever go clubbing again, he tried to kill himself. And so the idea of the show was conceived. Out of passion, drama, clinging to someone at the end of the night, when the drugs no longer work. There is a ritual inherent in the original play and in other great dramas like Genet’s, which I thought would lend itself tantalisingly and tellingly to a club situation. And address people trying to find a meaningful connection in a dangerous world.

Why did you choose this Shakespeare play and what was the queer message you wanted to convey?

Frankly, I had never seen a really great production of the play and had always wanted to do it. I wanted also to present it to a queer audience who’d already be familiar with, or understand the sub text. We workshopped my first edit of the text several months ago. We had four showings and the response was phenomenal. Everything at the moment is about Youth, Youth, Youth! So I wanted to work with older gay actors. I wanted to give a chance and work with actors who’d bring a command and maturity to the roles. I also wanted A & C like tigers prowling each other. Re-queering the Shakespeare seemed to free the piece and set the show afire. I write re-queering  because the original would have been played by boys and men. I wanted to explore that again. I also wanted to examine the fascinating mix of masculine and feminine in both A & C to the max and how their worlds shrink as both their lives extinguish. Both Jonny and Will McGeough, playing Antony, inhabit the roles brilliantly. As do Alexis Gregory and Jonathan Blake, as Cleopatra’s confident and best friend Charmian and Dolabella, the only person close to Antony who tells Cleopatra the truth of her fate. After the first showings I took the play away again and completely re-edited over several weeks. My original version only ran to 55 minutes (!) and anyone who knows the Shakespeare uncut knows it can run to over three hours. This new edit expands on scenes, opens up other speeches up and will run to about 70 minutes. I have also changed all the karaoke songs! Generally, most great tragedy is counterpointed by comedy and I thought this was a good way to do that in a slightly Vaudevillian tradition and envelope the audience and is fun. I don’t really like giving messages in a play, I want the audience to make up their own minds. Are they good or bad? Would we selfishly burn our lives to ashes for love? Maybe not. But A&C were just another couple who were losers against a greater force, this time Rome, who would have disappeared from history, except they grabbed the narrative back and demanded immortality in the grandeur and passion of their deaths. 

Antony and Cleopatra:
A Dream of Passion

Original play by
William Shakespeare

The Divine
33 Stoke Newington Road
London
N16 8BJ

Friday 13 September at  7.30pm
Saturday 14 September at 4.30pm
Monday 16 September (press night) at 7.30pm
Tuesday 17 September at 7.30pm
Wednesday 18 September at 7.30pm
Thursday 19 September at 7.30pm
Friday 20 September at 7.30pm
Saturday 21 September at 4.30pm
Monday 23 September at 7.30pm
Tuesday 24 September at 7.30pm
Wednesday 25 September at 7.30pm
Thursday 26 September at 7.30pm
Friday 27 September at 7.30pm

Tickets:
Preview: Thursday 12th September at 7.30pm – £15
All other nights – £20

Tickets outsavvy.com

More information on directions and accessibility:
thedivine.co.uk