Caesar and Cleopatra is a 1901 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was first published as part of his 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans (together with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple).

The play has two layers. The first one deals with the fact that Shaw wanted to prove that it wasn't love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Julius Caesar. In his play, Shaw stresses the relations between the Roman and Egyptian conquerors. In contrast to what probably happened historically, Cleopatra successfully arranges for the murder of the eunuch Pothinus after he humiliates her in front of Caesar.

Movie

A Technicolor film version of this Shaw play was produced by Gabriel Pascal in 1945, starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh. At the time it was rumoured to be the most expensive film made in Britain. Pascal was so lavish that he went to Egypt to collect sand to match the color on the set. It was described as a box office failure at the time, and was the last film version of a Shaw play personally overseen by the author. Gabriel Pascal went on to produce only one more Shaw film - the 1952 version of Androcles and the Lion, which he did not direct. It was directed by Chester Erskine and starred Jean Simmons, Alan Young, Maurice Evans, and, incongruously, Victor Mature, the "hunk" leading man of such films as The Robe and Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949 film).

Television productions

There have been two major television productions of the play. The first was in 1956, produced as part of the anthology series Producers' Showcase, on NBC. It starred Claire Bloom, Cedric Hardwicke, Farley Granger, Jack Hawkins and Judith Anderson. The second version, shown almost exactly twenty years later, was also telecast by NBC, and starred Genevieve Bujold, Alec Guinness, Clive Francis, Margaret Courtenay, and Iain Cuthbertson. It was telecast on the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

External links

• The Play (Entire Script)
• Movie Production Stills
• Movie Production Stills 2
• Film Facts

Irish plays | Irish texts | 1945 films | British films | Films based on plays | 1901 plays