I have written a lot over the years about how much I admire Harlequin Production’s search for perfection in theater. I can often fill my head with visions of Scot Whitney planning every detail of a show while he sits on his couch reading the script. He sees the play performed in his head and then seems to do whatever he has to do to bring that vision to his Olympia stage.

 

Such is the case with Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra currently making a run at the theater company’s stage at the State Theater. 

 

Maybe it is because Whitney has a tendency to study and ponder and envision and plan his theater’s annual production of a work by William Shakespeare. But whatever the reason, this show in the theater’s season always stands out as something special. 

 

One of the Bard’s classic tragedies, Antony & Cleopatra was also his last and arguably most complexly developed. 

It follows the story of love and destruction between the time of the Parthian War to when Cleopatra (played by Harlequin mainstay Mari Nelson) opts for suicide rather than be taken prisoner when her world collapses as alliances shift around her. 

The play tells the story everyone knows either from high school British lit class or from Turner Classic movies, which shows the Hollywood version starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. 

Mark Antony (John Bogar) is a soldier’s soldier who has always put his country over himself. That is until he meets the queen of Egypt, the seductive Cleopatra. He then turns his eyes away from Rome and his wife and toward the eyes of his new love.

 

The romance creates troubles for him and his country as rivals seize the opportunity to take power for themselves.

Intrigue ensues. 

What adds to the show are the great costumes, complete with rich colors and stark whites brought by costume designer Monique Anderson. Cleopatra eventually betrays Antony as a way to seize more power for herself and then changes her mind and declares her love for him again. She then dreams up the idea that she will send word that she has killed herself out of remorse for her lost love and believes Antony will rush to her side to view her body one last time. Her plan does not go well. Upon hearing the news, Antony attempts to kill himself. Moments after being mortally wounded, he learns that his love is alive and rushes to her side only to die in her arms. 

Ever the opportunist, Cleopatra makes the best of it and finds herself a prisoner rather than follow her love into death — at least for a while. She then realizes that all is lost and commits suicide by forcing an asp to bite her.

Woven through the story are some clever bits of dialogue and even a few chucklers for those willing to actually listen to the dialogue.

“This is the story of a midlife crisis that disrupts the entire world,” says Whitney. “Mark Antony is an aging lion, a powerful and charismatic general and politician. When he falls in love with Cleopatra, Egypt’s beautiful and exotic queen, he decides that he deserves a vacation. He abandons his wife and kids, ignores his political responsibilities, and jumps headfirst into the decadence of Egypt. Unfortunately, Octavius Caesar, a young and brilliant upstart politician, finds a way to twist Antony’s behavior — and public opinion — to his own benefit. When Antony finally decides it’s time to get back to work, he’s fighting an uphill battle.”

[State Theater, Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra, through Oct. 25, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $24-$33, 202 Fourth Ave E., Olympia, 360.786. 0151, www.harlequinproductions.org]

Now on stage

• Tacoma Musical Playhouse stages the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic musical about life and love in the war-torn tropics. South Pacific has it all — musical theater, violence, romance, comedy, a great score, complex and conflicted characters, and adventure.
  
  
  
  [Tacoma Musical Playhouse, through Oct. 26, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $18-$25, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.565.6867, www.tmp.org]
  
   


• Comedy gets an edge when Capital Playhouse stages The Three Penny Opera, a classic light that pulls no punches against the Victorian upper class. 
  
  
  
  [Capital Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $23-$35, 612 E. Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.943.2744, www.capitalplayhouse.com]
  
   


• The Olympia Family Theater presents Roald Dahl’s The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), the story of Sophie, a lonely orphan who hears that the child-chewing giants are off to England; she is out to stop them. 
  
  
  
  [Minnaert Performing Arts Center, through Nov. 2, 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday, $8-$15, South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia, www.olyft.org]
  
   


• Gig Harbor’s Encore! Theater is staging the überfunny Nunsense, a comedy about a gaggle of nuns who find themselves in a pickle and sing their way out of it. 
  
  
  
  [Encore! Theater, through Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $8-$15, 6615 38th Ave. N.W., Gig Harbor, 253.858.2282, www.encoretheater.org]