Cleopatra? She's all woman…

Playing royalty has its perks. After Michael Boyd decided to put his RSC production of in modern dress, his leading lady Kathryn Hunter – who will be playing the Egyptian queen opposite Darrell D'Silva's Mark Antony – was taken to the personal shopping department of Selfridges by the play's designer, Tom Piper, to look for costumes. "We were attended to with cappuccinos and sparkling water, and ladies went away to choose me dresses," Hunter says with a certain amount of awe. "I tried on a thousand things!" Rather appropriately, Cleopatra emerged from the department store with a whole host of outfits. It was a novelty, admits the 54-year-old actor and director: "I don't do dressing and nails...