She was not obvious casting as the serpent of old Nile. She was beginning the battle with debilitating illness that would kill her within a few years, when only in her 50’s. But in Peter Dews’ production of Antony and Cleopatra, with John Clements as Antony, Margaret Leighton made Cleopatra her own. Her performance was indeed one of ‘infinite variety’: glamorous, haughty, sensuous, witty, ferocious, fickle, passionate, always mesmerically watchable, and in her final moments, unbearably moving.
From: Laurie Slade