Shakespeare’s Anamorphic Drama: A Survey of Antony and Cleopatra in Criticism, on Stage, and on Screen

Of all Shakespeare’s problematic plays, I find Antony and Cleopatra to be his most anamorphic drama, a judgment validated by 350 years of vehemently conflicting interpretations. For the almost four centuries since its composition, critical controversy has seethed around every aspect of the tragedy-its value, its ethos, its genre, its structure, and its characters.1