OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY.

OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY. One surprising thing about the Hartford Stage Company production of Antony and Cleopatra was their interpretation of Octavius. The play contrasts Antony and Octavius. Frank Kermode in the Riverside Shakespeare gives what seems to be a representative view of Octavius: “rock-like, stable Octavius.” There is a lot of support for this in the play. But the Hartford production highlighted the contrast between Antony and an Octavius who is a full generation younger than Antony (and Julius Caesar) and who is not a warrior. In the drinking scene, Octavius expresses his dislike of drinking with the other soldiers (“I had rather fast from all, four days,/ Than drink so much in one.”). In Hartford, Octavius can’t hold his liquor and a bucket is brought on stage for him. Octavius was played by Scott Parkinson, who we thought was brilliant in the “Rose Rage” production of the Henry VI plays. I asked Mary Jane for a description of this Octavius. She used the words “spoiled, ruthless child.” But this Octavius is shrewd and focused on power, and Antony is not.