EXIT POLL: What theatre-goers think of Mark Rylance as Cleopatra

ALASTAIR HALL

A-LEVEL STUDENT, 17

It's a very fresh performance, and it was a really good idea to use a cast of all-male actors. I've been studying the play, and seeing it in a staging like this helps me to imagine how Antony and Cleopatra would have been performed back in the 17th century.

DOUGLAS OVEREND

RETIRED SCHOOLMASTER, 72

In one of the main bits, when Antony's body was hoisted up, the whole thing fell down because the audience burst out laughing. Thereafter, it was almost a farce. And there was too much shouting for my taste: it outdid the words and destroyed the lilt of the language, which is the essential part for me.

JOSIE JACOBS

DESIGNER, 50

Next time I go the Globe I'll make sure its not an all-male cast. I did think that women could have brought something a bit different to the performance. It would have been nice to have seen Cleopatra as a lady. Or if they had to all be men, at least Cleopatra could have looked a bit more feminine.

WESLEY KERR

BBC JOURNALIST, 40

It's the first time I've been to the Globe; I'm here because an American friend wanted to come. But it's been one of the best theatrical afternoons of my life. So much of Shakespeare involves a play on gender - in Twelfth Night and so on - and I thought Mark Rylance was so emotionally intense.