What isAntony and Cleopatra? Tragedy? Romance? History?Comedy? The conventional wisdom is to pick tragedy, but this messy entry in the later chapters of Shakespeare’s canon dances between the Bard’s genres like a “high-coloured” Lepidus.

This week we struggle with Shakespeare’s portrayal of the titular heroine, get lost in the play’s globe-trotting plot, and – for good measure – debate the finer points ofSister, Sister.