ABSTRACT
But Cleopatra, as performer and critic of performance, is always in control of her own play: in control of Antony, of discourse, of her own image-making, and of the audience. She lost the sea battle; but the theatre is hers, as she revels in an arena which, in the last act, is supremely her own. In our age this play ought to be produced as a statement about women’s control, not about women’s weakness, because it exposes the performative nature of gender categories, offering us a world we can recognize.
