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Cambridge American Stage Tour Returns with "Antony and Cleopatra" Sept 5 & 6

Cambridge University American Stage Tour Returns to Columbia College

U.K. Theatre Company to Present Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

September 5 and 6, 2012
7:30 p.m., Cottingham Theatre
General Admission $10.00  |  Free with Columbia College ID
Military, Students and Seniors (65 and over) $5.00

Box office hours:
September 4 - 6, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
September 5 and 6, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Call 786-3850 for reservations. Reserve early; seating is limited!

Cambridge University American Stage Tour (CAST), the much-anticipated annual theatre tour from Great Britain to the United States, comes to Columbia College on September 5 and 6.
 
Cambridge University’s most talented directors, producers, actors and technicians will present two performances of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at Cottingham Theatre as part of their 13th U.S. tour. In recent years, they have toured productions of Macbeth, The Tempest, and Two Gentlemen of Verona, receiving rave reviews from full-house audiences along their tour of prestigious colleges, high schools and community theatres, and at home in the U.K. This will be their fourth visit to Columbia College.
 
The company of 18 touring members boasts a number of performers with professional film credits, including Genevieve Gaunt (Cleopatra), an alumna of the Harry Potter franchise. Fans will recognize her as Slytherin Pansy Parkinson in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

This year’s production promises to explode onto the stage with a stark, visceral, physically powerful rendering of one of Shakespeare’s most vibrant tragedies:

Trouble is brewing in turbulent Rome. Mark Antony, one third of the ruling Triumvirate, has abandoned his homeland duties in favor of the beguiling Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. While pirates rush the shores, discontent seethes in the hearts of men and none more so than the eminent Octavius Caesar. Into a spinning backdrop of furious wars, forced smiles and too-firm handshakes, Antony must come home. Yet even the titans of Rome cannot sever him from the pull of Cleopatra, the volatile point around which Antony whirls and anchors his world.

Cleopatra, charming and vicious by turns, is the embodiment of a seductive East versus the conquest-obsessed West. Together the two form the most memorable of Shakespeare’s lovers, both his most unheroic heroes and most powerful players in a constant interchange of will, lust and control. Against the backdrop of political turmoil stalk the men and women of Rome and Egypt, each caught up in a world in which brutality seems to rule. Inspired by the belief that the language of this particular drama is inherently open to an exploration of movement, this is a production matching the beauty of an incredible text with an explosive, physically dynamic approach to performance. Devastatingly poignant and startlingly comic, Antony and Cleopatra sets rising star against a hero in decline, while pushing to the breaking point a passion that could topple empires.

Visit www.castcambridge.com to learn more about CAST.

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