Shakespeare’s ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’ is a tragedy that recounts the love and demise of the titular characters, Mark Anthony, the Roman general and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Though the plot is based on the historical events, it is still well written with an engaging flow, with points of intrigue well balanced across the play. There is an excessive amount of scene breaks, though this was added in in later editing and not the original play. Ignoring some of these pauses between short scenes, especially emphasised in act 4, the plot remains consistently engaging. It is an extremely Romeo and Juliet-esque tragedy of doomed lovers that also has a political angle exploring the events that led to the birth of the Roman Empire, and Augustus, known in the play as Octavius Caesar, becoming the first emperor of Rome. Though the plot of Romeo and Juliet is very similar, I also cannot raise this as a fault due to the plays grounding in historical events. I will however fault the sheer amount of times characters just die from ‘grief’, these deaths being sudden and unexplained, seemingly just to increase the body count and therefore tragic elements of the play. The wives of Anthony are also largely mistreated by Shakespeare, they existing only to be betrayed and their deaths cast aside, no care for them whatsoever. I would also like to take mention of Enobarbus as a character however, being so incredibly blunt and living a dramatic shifting character arc in the few acts in which he featured in the play, he was absolutely a highlight.