Caesar and Cleopatra

Written in 1898 and performed in 1901, George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra has a more classically romantic spin on the relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra compared to the politically motivated ones portrayed in other plays and poems. Opening with the famous scene of Cleopatra sleeping between the paws of the Sphinx, the play tells the story of Caesar's defeat of Pompey, his love affair with Cleopatra, and his awarding her with the throne of his recently conquered Egypt.