Antony and Cleopatra

Bard on the Beach 2010 production

Where does duty lie?  To the individual (Cleopatra) to the community (Rome)?  To both really.  There is not one in particular that is necessarily more important than the other.  My partner and I were talking a little bit about this issue last night.  He talked about people we admire - musicians, activists, intellectuals, artists and so forth - people who have moved us, caused awe in us and who have influenced society in profound ways and how he did not feel that he is currently doing anything at all to further himself/influence society, etc.  I think he was in many ways just feeling hard on himself, a lack of insecurity and self-loathing.  I pointed out to him that things may not seem as rosy or perfect as they really are.

Howard Zinn admitted that he missed most of the meaningful events in his children's lives and neglected his relationship with his wife because he was too busy working.  If Zinn has not been an obsessive hardworking man committed to education and social activism, his children may have benefitted from a closer relationship with him but then again, this may also mean that we may not have had the volumes of incredibly important work from him.  A balance has to be struck and sometimes it is difficult to determine how.

Cleopatra, much as I don't particularly like her character (for her extravagance and childishness at times), I still empathize and can relate to her.  She is the "Other" as a sexual female and as a dark foreigner.  The biases of the Romans come out with their racist and sexist overtures.  The female exotic "Other" is portrayed as an overly passionate individual rather than the more subdued culture of the Romans but not in a good way.  I think this portrayal of the "East" lives on today and certainly even in more recent times in which certain races of peoples are hypersexualized.  Cleopatra proves herself principled in the end and chooses to commit suicide to die in honour rather than to die as a slave/prisoner to be paraded as an example.