By Jen Dean
Footscray local Louis Lucente is swapping Melbourne’s inner west for the Roman Empire this September, taking on one of Shakespeare’s great leading roles in Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s new production of Cleopatra & Antony.
For Lucente, who moved to Footscray with his family almost three years ago, the role comes at a particularly fitting point in his life.
“We really love the energy and community of the West,” he says. “There are lots of young families and creative people around, so it feels like a pretty natural fit for us.”
He has enjoyed watching his neighbourhood evolve, from the RecWest precinct to plans for the former Footscray Hospital site, and says the growing green spaces and community pockets make it “a great place for our kids to grow up”.
Lucente caught the performing bug as a teenager, undertaking professional training after high school before building a career across theatre and television. His work has taken him around Australia and internationally through musicals, plays and screen projects.
These days, with a young family at home, his priorities are changing.
“I’m increasingly looking for opportunities to do ambitious work here in Melbourne,” he says. “I’d wanted to work with Melbourne Shakespeare Company for a while, so Cleopatra & Antony came along at a really great point in my life.”
Taking on Mark Antony, however, is no small undertaking.
“I won’t lie, it’s daunting. You’re aware of actors like Alan Rickman, Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Fiennes who’ve tackled Antony, so there’s this enormous history sitting behind the role.”
His solution has been to forget the legend and find the person underneath.
“Antony doesn’t know he’s ‘Mark Antony’ in the historical sense. He’s just this guy trying to survive politically, hold onto his power and identity, and navigate this extraordinary relationship.”
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is performed far less frequently than tragedies such as Hamlet or Macbeth, perhaps because of its sheer scale. The play hurtles between countries, warfare, political intrigue and an enormous love story.
But Lucente says underneath the epic history are two people “completely intoxicated by one another”.
Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s adaptation, directed by Sonya Suares, goes further by reversing the familiar title to Cleopatra & Antony and deliberately placing Cleopatra’s perspective first.
“Cleopatra’s story has traditionally been filtered through a Roman lens,” Lucente says. “She’s often painted as this exotic temptress who distracted Antony from greatness, almost the Yoko Ono of the Roman Empire.”
Putting Cleopatra first asks audiences to consider whose version of history they have inherited and who was able to write it. It also changes Antony.
“It becomes less about this great Roman being ‘led astray’ and more about two very powerful people trying to reconcile love, ambition, and who they are in public with who they are privately.”
Lucente has found an unexpectedly contemporary comparison for the couple.
“I keep thinking of them as a kind of middle-aged Romeo and Juliet. Except rather than two teenagers whose families are at war, you’ve got two rulers whose relationship can literally change the course of history.”
“If you love something like Game of Thrones or The Odyssey, with political plotting, battles, betrayals and enormous personalities, you’ll recognise this world pretty quickly,” he says.
Audiences shouldn’t expect reverential Shakespeare preserved behind glass.
“I wouldn’t quite call it Shakespeare for Dummies, but we’re definitely not making a museum piece.”
Instead, Lucente promises a huge story in an intimate room – and a Shakespearean epic that might feel considerably closer to home than audiences expect.
“Plus, one of the great things about living in Footscray is how close we actually are to the CBD, so I’d love to see plenty of fellow Westies in the audience.”
Cleopatra & Antony is at fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane Melbourne –
August 20 – September 13
