JUDI DENCH won a standing ovation for her new role as Queen of the Nile in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Her first-night audience cheered and applauded with their arms above their heads when she took her bow at the end of the 3 1/2 hour performance.

The production by national Theatre director Sir Peter Hall also marked a unique stage double for actor Anthony Hopkins. He is making stage history by alternating between roles as Mark Antony and King Lear.

The celebrity audience at the Olivier theatre, which houses both plays, greeted this latest Shakespearean classic with a four-minute ovation. sir Peter, sipping champagne after the show, declared: "The play ignited. The cast were magical. The play is a huge object to keep control of and they did me proud."

Miss Dench, 52, who plays Cleopatra in a wig of waist length auburn curls, was emotionally drained. Hugging the arm of her husband, actor Michael Williams, she said: "Cleopatra has been my most difficult role to date."

Thanks to Mary Lynn Travers for sending this article which appeared in the London Daily News on October 4, 1987.

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