Cake (Medea, "Desperate Housewives") stars as Mark Antony opposite Kalukango (Emotional Creature, Hurt Village) as Cleopatra in the production that premiered at the RSC in November 2013 and played a Miami engagement earlier this year. Antony and Cleopatra is a collaboration between the Public, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Miami's GableStage.
Antony and Cleopatra runs through March 23 in the Anspacher Theater. It features a cast of American and U.K. actors.
According to the Public, McCraney "has edited the play and set it in the late 1700s against the backdrop of Saint-Domingue, on the eve of the Haitian Revolution against the French, bringing to light vivid historical parallels with the story of Antony and Cleopatra."
The cast also includes Charise Castro-Smith (Octavia, Iras), Ian Lassiter (Agrippa, Thyreus), Chivas Michael (Mardian, Eros, Soothsayer), Henry Stram (Lepidus, Proculeius), Samuel Collings (Octavius), Ash Hunter (Pompey, Alexas, Scarus), Chukwudi Iwuji (Enobarbus) and Sarah Niles (Charmian, Menas). The production has scenic design by Tom Piper, lighting design by Stephen Strawbridge, music composed by Michael Thurber and movement direction by Gelan Lambert.
McCraney's The Brothers Size premiered at The Public's Under the Radar Festival in 2006 and was followed by a Public Lab production in 2007. His complete trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays (comprising In the Red and Brown Water, The Brothers Size and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet), was produced at The Public in 2009. His plays also include Choir Boy, Wig Out and Head of Passes.
For tickets phone (212) 967-7555 or visit PublicTheater. The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan.
