Antony and Cleopatra, Barbican Centre

'O! my oblivion is a very Antony'. Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra comes to the Barbican this winter as part of the Rome MMXVII season.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's Rome season plays are not only connected by where they lay their scenes. Antony and Cleopatra picks up from where Julius Caesar leaves off – right at the height of the usurping Mark Antony’s success.

With more passion and politics than Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s mature tragic lovers are revived in an intense and glamorous production by the ever-innovative director Iqbal Kahn (who impressed at the RSC with Othello in 2015 and an Indian Much Ado About Nothing in 2012). Soulful popsinger Laura Mvula

Antony Byrne offers a strong performance as the Roman general distracted from rule by love. Yet Josette Simon’s darkly sultry, fluid Cleopatra is set to steal the show as she did in Stratford .

If the reviews from the RSC run are to be believed, this is not the boldest take on Shakespeare you'll see, but it's more than worth seeing for 'a Cleopatra to die for'.