Marcel Toto, in questa sua opera teatrale, riscrive le tragedie di Didone (Marlowe) e Cleopatra (Shakespeare) inserendo le due regine in un vortice di voci e sentimenti che porterà a nuove consapevolezze, nell’ottica del corso di Letterature comparate, Formazione e funzione del personaggio femminile nel teatro europeo: Shakespeare e Marlowe  (Prof.ssa Chiara Lombardi).

This play reimagines Dido and Cleopatra reclaiming the narratives of their love, revealing how history transforms intimacy into spectacle, women into sacrifice, and queens into legend.
One act, five scenes: the dramatic voices of women who suffered and ultimately died because of forces they could not control. Was it Fate? Political power? Or men?
In the Underworld, Dido and Cleopatra encounter one another and form an unexpected bond, sharing their life experiences and traumas, learning how they are not alone in their doomed endings, how they’ve been misunderstood and badly narrated after their tragic deaths.
Because they are no longer merely dead women or fallen queens: they are human beings, souls who have suffered because of their lovers and have been turned into words and plays, stories on a page.
They’ve been dehumanised, humiliated, sacrificed… but now they reclaim the right to speak.
To narrate their own stories.
To live, if only once more, a life that is theirs and theirs alone.

*

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Dido
Anna
Cleopatra
Octavia

SCENE I – We Loved Empires

[A shore outside time, ethereal and infinite: the Underworld. The sound of distant water, but no sea is visible. DIDO sits on a rock, her white drape surrounding her, her long curly hair falling over her shoulders. She sighs.]

DIDO
I’ve been foolish, haven’t I?
Falling for a man… and my kingdom falling with me.
Why did I give my all to him? Why?
What was it that made me fall for him…
I cannot remember.
I’ve been gone for so long now.
I wonder where he’s been all this time.
Yes, I wonder where he is, even now.
Is he happy? Is he married to a woman he loves? Does he dream… of me?
I keep wondering: are all of my sufferings worth his happiness?
He could have been happy, even without me, but I… could I?
I could have been happy without him… yes, yes, yes!
[She rises and begins to wander around, circling the rock.] Happier, even!
All he needed was Rome. Rome and his destiny to fulfil.
Not me. Not my love. What about my devotion? My tears?
No, no. None of that mattered to him.
Only Rome. He loved empires.
And I didn’t love mine enough.
My people, my sister…
Anna… oh, Anna.
[She sheds a tear. Her sister, ANNA, hearing her cries, arrives.]

ANNA
Dido, my dear sister, are you still crying for that wanderer?
Really, Dido? You burned for him, was it not enough?
Carthage burned for him.

DIDO
Sister! Stop! Stop the memories, stop the pain.
I need to get over it, over him.
I loved him too much when I needed to love my people more.
Was I selfish?

ANNA
[ANNA puts a hand on her sister’s shoulder.]
Oh, sweet Dido… no, no you weren’t.
You were in love.
It was the most important thing at the time.
The sea, the shells, the sunsets on the beach… were they something to you when you had him?
Don’t blame yourself, don’t blame love. It is the current that moves rivers.

DIDO
What about my city? What about Carthage?

ANNA
Carthage surely misses her queen. But she’ll go on.
You should too.

DIDO
[DIDO looks at her sister and attempts a smile.]
Yes, you’re right. I should.

[ANNA smiles at her and exits.]

SCENE II – He Called It Duty

[The sound of distant steps, a slim figure approaches. It’s Cleopatra, adorned with gold and precious stones, her dark skin glows in the dim light of the Underworld. She looks at DIDO and grins, amused, observant.]

CLEOPATRA
So this is where abandoned women go.
No torches. No judges.
Disappointing.

DIDO
You are not abandoned.
You are dead.

CLEOPATRA
I know.

[Beat]

You are Dido.

DIDO
I was.

CLEOPATRA
Ah. Then we share a profession.
Queens who outlived their usefulness.
I’m Cleo, by the way. Cleopatra of Egypt.
[They study each other. It’s recognition, not rivalry.]

DIDO
Did he swear it was destiny? [She says with a knowing look]

CLEOPATRA
Naturally. They always do.
It sounds better than saying I chose power.

DIDO
He called it fate.
As if fate ever packed its bags in the middle of the night and left in a hurry after using me and the generosity of my people, after crushing my pride and passion under heavy feet.
He called it duty.
As if love were a crime.

[Short silence.]

CLEOPATRA
They wrote songs about you.

DIDO
They wrote warnings.
About loving men who listen to gods.

CLEOPATRA
Mine listened to Rome. To his own madness. To duty.
Same voice. Louder chorus.

[CLEOPATRA steps closer to DIDO.]

Did you ever think of staying alive just to disappoint them? Maybe to show them we are not just a nice story to tell.

DIDO
Every day.
Then I understood.
My death would speak more clearly than my life.

CLEOPATRA
Dido, it’s so obvious.
We were not the foolish ones.
We were not blind, not even in the slightest.
We just believed the lie that history tells women when it needs them behind.
The lie of a man who truly loves them.
Of a man who doesn’t only see their power or their fragilities, but the woman behind them.
Can you believe that? [She laughs]
I died when I stopped believing that.
And now I have the right to own myself and my story again.

DIDO
So… you have forgiven him?

CLEOPATRA
No. I forgave myself.

[DIDO exits.]

SCENE III – History Wrote Me Naked

[A colder space of the Underworld. Marble steps, clean and bare. CLEOPATRA stands alone.  She is unusually still.]

CLEOPATRA
So this is what survives.
Not love.
Not excess.
Respectability.

[OCTAVIA enters. She does not look lost. She wears simple clothes, her hair in a tidy ponytail.]

OCTAVIA
I was not meant to come here.

CLEOPATRA
None of us were.

[They face each other. No hostility. No pity.]

OCTAVIA
You’re breathtaking.
Now I understand what he used to see in you.
I was necessary, but you… you were wanted, desired.

CLEOPATRA
Does it make a difference?
Apparently, all the women in his life were disposable.

[She smiles to OCTAVIA and sits on the marble stairs, inviting her to sit next to her. OCTAVIA sits next to CLEOPATRA.]

Beauty, power, marriage… they mean nothing when the man is nothing.
In my heart and in my head, I never believed a word that left his mouth.
Did you?

OCTAVIA
Me neither, but I had responsibilities towards my brother.
I had to accept what was given to me.
It doesn’t mean I’ve been unaware of my position, just as you were.
We both share something, Cleo.

[She takes CLEOPATRA’s hand in her own.]

An experience.
A lesson.
Not a man.

CLEOPATRA [She laughs.]
You’re amusing, Octavia.
And very clever too.
I guess history needed you as much as it needed me, then.
History wrote me naked.
And then it wrote you as the opposite.

OCTAVIA
History… history is written by men.
And it is populated by men.
Women are just a narrative device.

CLEOPATRA
To justify their madness? Absolutely.
To cover their true nature and intentions? Also, yes.

OCTAVIA
Ah. Cleo, I wish I had met you earlier.
Maybe in life.
We could have been friends.

CLEOPATRA
We were from very different worlds.
Now we’re not.
In death we’re all the same.
Rome, Egypt… they do not matter anymore.

OCTAVIA
And their politics here are nothing.
But us. We are something.
Here we’re alive.
True.

CLEOPATRA
In death we’re free.
That snake showed me the way.
I just embraced it.

[CLEOPATRA and OCTAVIA exit hand in hand, chatting and smiling.]

SCENE IV – What Remained

[The Underworld is now empty, DIDO is standing alone in the centre of the stage. She looks lost in her thoughts.]

DIDO
Cleo… What a strong and resolute woman she is.
I used to be like her. Or maybe that’s just a made-up memory.
I now understand where I failed, but… I can’t seem to come to terms with it.
I just wish I didn’t feel this guilty. Or idiotic. Or lost.
And I should stop babbling. I, I, I.
This isn’t about me.
This is about the ones who remained.
The ones I left behind.
The ashes of my city. Of my dignity. Of my love.
This is about Anna.
Anna who could have had a future.
Anna, who could have ruled Carthage with kindness.
I should be the only one suffering because of my actions.
But she is too.

[ANNA enters. She has the usual gentle look on her face.]

ANNA
I see you’re talking to yourself again.  [She smiles kindly.]
You can always talk to me. You know that, right?

DIDO
Yes. Yes.
It’s… I’m tired of burdening you with my problems.
With everything that keeps circling back to me.
I should be stronger than this.
For you.

[ANNA sighs and rests her head on DIDO’s shoulder.]

ANNA [Whispering.]
I never asked you to be strong.
No one ever did.
You don’t have to fight this.
You fought enough for his love.
Don’t you think you deserve to finally rest?

DIDO
But you…

ANNA [Interrupts DIDO.]
This is not about me, dear sister.
This is not about him.
It’s all about you.
It’s your death.
But it doesn’t belong to him anymore.

[CLEOPATRA’s voice offstage.]

CLEOPATRA
Your sister is right, Dido.
She has always been.

[She enters and remains at a certain distance.]

DIDO
Cleo? What are you doing here?

CLEOPATRA
I was wandering around when I heard your voice.
Curiosity has always been one of my flaws.

ANNA [She chuckles.]
I’ll leave you in good hands.

[ANNA squeezes DIDO’s hand once. She does not wait for an answer. She exits quietly.]

CLEOPATRA
She’s a splendid person.
You should trust her judgment more.

DIDO
I know. [DIDO lowers her head.]

CLEOPATRA
Is that all you have to say? [She takes a step closer.]
Dido, you should be more aware of who you are.

DIDO
You tell me.

CLEOPATRA [She shakes her head.]
No, I don’t.
You have to regain your pride.
Your own name.
Dido of Carthage.

[DIDO and CLEOPATRA face each other, looking intently into each other’s eyes.
Something is changing.]

SCENE V – Not Tragic, Not Silent

[Two soft pools of light isolate DIDO and CLEOPATRA. They stand apart, facing forward, not each other.]

DIDO
When they speak of me, they begin from the end.
They never ask what came before.
The years.
The city.
The weight of being queen before being a woman.

CLEOPATRA
And ultimately, they forget we’re women.
We become lovers, wives… A disgrace.

DIDO [She nods and takes a deep breath.]
I do not deny what I did.
I died.
I was in pain.
But that moment was not all I was.
Not all I am.

CLEOPATRA
Yet it became convenient.

DIDO
Yes.
Convenient to call it tragedy.
As if it explained everything.
They needed a reason simple enough to repeat.

CLEOPATRA
History survives on repetition.

DIDO
And on examples.
On women arranged into meaning, even after they are gone.

CLEOPATRA
Even while they are still alive: they become symbols.
Symbols are easier to control than lives.

[DIDO turns slightly toward CLEOPATRA.]

DIDO
Then it was never about how I died.
Not really.

CLEOPATRA
No.
It was about keeping order.

DIDO
About teaching others where not to step.
How far not to go.

CLEOPATRA
And whom not to resemble.

[Brief silence.]

DIDO
I will not be remembered as a lesson.

CLEOPATRA
Nor as a warning.

DIDO
I was not tragic by nature.

CLEOPATRA
We were made to look inevitable.

[DIDO and CLEOPATRA finally face each other.]

DIDO
But inevitability is just another story.

CLEOPATRA
One we no longer owe them.

[They stand still, unafraid.
Then they face forward again, looking at the audience.]

DIDO
Because we are not tragic.
And we won’t be silent anymore.

[Blackout.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marlowe, Christopher. Dido, Queen of Carthage (Italian translation by R. Wilcock). Milan: Adelphi, 1966.

Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra (Italian translation by G. Sacerdoti, in Tutte le opere di William Shakespeare, ed. F. Marenco, Vol. I, “Le tragedie”). Milan: Bompiani, 2014.