Reviews

The False One by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger

gillothen's review against another edition

4.0

No Beaumont involved, just Massinger for the first and last acts (Mr Exposition Man) and Fletcher, Shakespeare fanboy par excellence with the middle section. It's the Caesar and Cleopatra story, complete with her unconventional first meeting with him, delivered inside a carpet or, as Fletcher puts it, a "packet". The villain of the piece is the Roman who betrayed Pompey the Great, helping Ptolemy send his head to Caesar, not acceptable by Roman standards of honourable warfare. He's mostly quite nasty, though with some meaty scenes and speeches.

Read as part of the REP online readathon of the King's Men repertoire in the bleak winter of 2020.