Caesar and Cleopatra

Caesar and Cleopatra is a play of vivid pictures and superb effects: in the desert at night an old Roman general speaks to a small Sphinx, oblivious to the child-woman asleep between its paws; the child-woman Cleopatra chooses the old general as her protector, against Caesar “who eats children,” not realizing, until the Romans troops begin shouting “Hail Caesar” that her old general and Caesar are one in the same; Caesar arming himself for battle while the Library of Alexandria is burning in the background; Cleopatra in a carpet, unrolled and revealed to a surprisingly indifferent Caesar; Caesar and Cleopatra swimming to safety; a female assassin, with her throat cut, crumpled before an altar, is disclosed when a curtain is pulled back; amid the splendor of Caesar’s farewell procession, Cleopatra and her women appear, dressed in black.