 The production company set up by Olivier took a lease on the St James 's Theatre . In January 1950 he produced , directed and starred in Christopher Fry 's verse play Venus <unk> . The production was popular , despite poor reviews , but the expensive production did little to help the finances of Laurence Olivier Productions . After a series of box @-@ office failures , the company balanced its books in 1951 with productions of Shaw 's Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare 's Antony and Cleopatra which the Oliviers played in London and then took to Broadway . Olivier was thought by some critics to be under par in both his roles , and some suspected him of playing deliberately below his usual strength so that Leigh might appear his equal . Olivier dismissed the suggestion , regarding it as an insult to his integrity as an actor . In the view of the critic and biographer W. A. Darlington , he was simply <unk> both as Caesar and Antony , finding the former boring and the latter weak . Darlington comments , " Olivier , in his middle <unk> when he should have been displaying his powers at their very peak , seemed to have lost interest in his own acting " . Over the next four years Olivier spent much of his time working as a producer , presenting plays rather than directing or acting in them . His presentations at the St James 's included seasons by <unk> <unk> 's company giving two <unk> plays in Italian , followed by a visit from the <unk> @-@ Française playing works by <unk> , <unk> , <unk> and <unk> in French . Darlington considers a 1951 production of Othello starring Orson Welles as the pick of Olivier 's productions at the theatre . 
