Julius Caesar
Dec. 19th, 2024 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerOnward in my National Theater at Home viewing: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar! Well, of course my second play had to be Julius Caesar, my first and oldest Shakespearian love, which I love even as Brutus loved Caesar, and often with the same “I’m not ANGRY, I’m just DISAPPOINTED” energy that Brutus brought to the Senate on the day of the stabbing.
A brief history of my love affair with this play: we read this in class in ninth grade, where it rewired my brain, as I read it as the tragic tale of an idealist (Brutus) who betrays his dearest friend (Caesar) in order to save the Republic from encroaching tyranny, only to realize that his co-conspirators (Cassius et al) are selfish leeches who attacked Caesar out of personal spite rather than actual love of the Republic. Noble. Tragic. “If you ever became a tyrant,” I assured my friends, “I would kill you before letting you become evil.” They did not take this glowing proof of true and noble friendship in the spirit it was intended.
As you can imagine, this created an Ideal Brutus in my head whom no one has ever matched. The 1953 version with Marlon Brando as Marc Antony? The fact that I remember Antony and not Brutus says it all. Tobias Menzies in Rome? In over his head, wet behind the ears, completely incompetent conspirator without a noble bone in his body. (This IS HBO, after all.) The version put on by my zoom theater group where I played Brutus for the first half and Cassius for the second? Listen, I was having a great time, but did I manage to embody Brutus’s true nobility? I think not. (Cassius’s petulance however was right up my alley.) The version I saw at Indy Shakes earlier this year?
Okay, the Indy Shakes version was quite good actually. I’m still haunted by the assassination scene, where everyone stabs Caesar once, ending with Brutus, and you have “Et tu, Brute?” and Caesar dies and Brutus steps back… and the rest of them pick up the corpse and keep stabbing because they just hate Caesar that much. (To be fair, Caesar did boop Cassius on the nose earlier in the production, so I get it.)
However, the real standout in that production was Caesar, which: fair, the play is named after him, but also the Ideal Brutus ought to bestride the play like a colossus. The Indy Shakes Brutus didn’t manage this, and neither, quite, did Ben Whishaw in the National Theater production. So the Ideal Brutus remains a figment, although like the IndyShakes production, the National Theater Production was a good time overall.
I do think they made a mistake in having the conspirators shoot Caesar with guns rather than stab him, though. Yes, it’s a modern production, yes, modern assassins would use guns, but you lose the visceral effect of the assassination scene if the conspirators are standing
Anyway, any modernized production has to pick and choose which bits of modernity it’s going to use anyway. For instance, the Indy Shakes production used cell phones to good effect: Brutus shoos away Cassius when he tries to film the “Romans, countrymen, and lovers,” speech, while Antony encourages the plebes to film “Friends, Romans, countrymen,” and by the end they’re standing about him in a ring filming…
But they still had Brutus and Cassius meet Antony and Octavian face to face to rag on each other before the Battle of Philippi. Does this make any sense in a world with telecommunications? No. Is it ten thousand times more dramatically satisfying to have this face to face confrontation in person rather than over a zoom call? Yes.
This has inadvertently turned into a review of the Indy Shakes Julius Caesar. An unintended tribute to the power of live theater, perhaps.
Anyway! Going back to the National Theater to wrap up this review. I thought the real standout in this show was Casca, of all characters. He’s usually played as a bit of a buffoon, but the actress in this play interpreted Casca as acting the buffoon to protect herself in this dangerous political climate, but in actuality absolutely knowing the score. The lovely thing about the famous Shakespeare plays is that they’re performed so often that you can see many different interpretations, and it’s so interesting how much you can change the meaning of a line sheerly through delivery.
A brief history of my love affair with this play: we read this in class in ninth grade, where it rewired my brain, as I read it as the tragic tale of an idealist (Brutus) who betrays his dearest friend (Caesar) in order to save the Republic from encroaching tyranny, only to realize that his co-conspirators (Cassius et al) are selfish leeches who attacked Caesar out of personal spite rather than actual love of the Republic. Noble. Tragic. “If you ever became a tyrant,” I assured my friends, “I would kill you before letting you become evil.” They did not take this glowing proof of true and noble friendship in the spirit it was intended.
As you can imagine, this created an Ideal Brutus in my head whom no one has ever matched. The 1953 version with Marlon Brando as Marc Antony? The fact that I remember Antony and not Brutus says it all. Tobias Menzies in Rome? In over his head, wet behind the ears, completely incompetent conspirator without a noble bone in his body. (This IS HBO, after all.) The version put on by my zoom theater group where I played Brutus for the first half and Cassius for the second? Listen, I was having a great time, but did I manage to embody Brutus’s true nobility? I think not. (Cassius’s petulance however was right up my alley.) The version I saw at Indy Shakes earlier this year?
Okay, the Indy Shakes version was quite good actually. I’m still haunted by the assassination scene, where everyone stabs Caesar once, ending with Brutus, and you have “Et tu, Brute?” and Caesar dies and Brutus steps back… and the rest of them pick up the corpse and keep stabbing because they just hate Caesar that much. (To be fair, Caesar did boop Cassius on the nose earlier in the production, so I get it.)
However, the real standout in that production was Caesar, which: fair, the play is named after him, but also the Ideal Brutus ought to bestride the play like a colossus. The Indy Shakes Brutus didn’t manage this, and neither, quite, did Ben Whishaw in the National Theater production. So the Ideal Brutus remains a figment, although like the IndyShakes production, the National Theater Production was a good time overall.
I do think they made a mistake in having the conspirators shoot Caesar with guns rather than stab him, though. Yes, it’s a modern production, yes, modern assassins would use guns, but you lose the visceral effect of the assassination scene if the conspirators are standing
Anyway, any modernized production has to pick and choose which bits of modernity it’s going to use anyway. For instance, the Indy Shakes production used cell phones to good effect: Brutus shoos away Cassius when he tries to film the “Romans, countrymen, and lovers,” speech, while Antony encourages the plebes to film “Friends, Romans, countrymen,” and by the end they’re standing about him in a ring filming…
But they still had Brutus and Cassius meet Antony and Octavian face to face to rag on each other before the Battle of Philippi. Does this make any sense in a world with telecommunications? No. Is it ten thousand times more dramatically satisfying to have this face to face confrontation in person rather than over a zoom call? Yes.
This has inadvertently turned into a review of the Indy Shakes Julius Caesar. An unintended tribute to the power of live theater, perhaps.
Anyway! Going back to the National Theater to wrap up this review. I thought the real standout in this show was Casca, of all characters. He’s usually played as a bit of a buffoon, but the actress in this play interpreted Casca as acting the buffoon to protect herself in this dangerous political climate, but in actuality absolutely knowing the score. The lovely thing about the famous Shakespeare plays is that they’re performed so often that you can see many different interpretations, and it’s so interesting how much you can change the meaning of a line sheerly through delivery.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-19 02:20 pm (UTC)Yes, it’s a modern production, yes, modern assassins would use guns, but you lose the visceral effect of the assassination scene
I think I've told you this before, but the one live production of Julius Caesar I've seen used a historical Roman aesthetic/costuming for the first half - up until the outbreak of civil war - and then modern costuming/technology in the second half. (Except for Cinna the poet, who wore modern clothing for the whole play.)
...I did spend at least a page of my last letter talking about this production, so I don't want to #spoil that or inflict you with my same thoughts twice, BUT the thing that really stood out to me about this production was the use of space— the audience standing around the moving platforms, and the way it used the audience in terms of like— cheering for Caesar! Holding up placards during Mark Anthony's speech! Standing in for the public opinion that characters were trying to sway, basically.
(The Midsummer's Night Dream that I recommended was also at the Bridge Theatre and also has a really cool use of space, with the moving stage platforms and aerial performances! Also, the actor who played Octavius is... I want to say Lysander in that one?)
no subject
Date: 2024-12-19 11:24 pm (UTC)I know you've mentioned this half historic/half modern Julius Caesar before, but I don't think you mentioned that specifically Cinna the poet was in modern clothes for the whole play. Did they have him playing a bigger role than his usual single appearance right after the assassination for the mob to tear him apart because they think he's a conspirator?
I don't think the letter with your thoughts about the staging has arrived yet! I will keep my eyes open. The IndyShakes production also had some audience participation (though much less, and we didn't have to spend the whole production standing up! Impressed they found that many people willing to stand for the whole performance tbh), but the thing that really stood out to me as a similarity, where you have Octavian stepping into the limelight in a way that foreshadows the future... (Now I want to see the National Theater Antony and Cleopatra. Oooh, maybe I'll start that tonight.)
But the ending was also another interesting contrast of staging. In IndyShakes, Antony watches Octavian in the center of the cameras, her face a mask of fury, whereas in the National Theater production Antony is kneeling in the darkness by the dead while Octavian moves into the limelight.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 03:26 am (UTC)They combined the roles of Cinna the poet and the Soothsayer, iirc - and if not, I'm thinking of the Soothsayer rather than Cinna the poet, although I'd swear that they did, because I was today years old when I realized that those are different roles - and they started the play by a fake-out in which the actor - appearing for all extents and purposes to be Just Some Guy - hopped up on stage and started reading his own bumbling poetry before "security" went to shoo him off and it turned into the first scene ("Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!"). So I guess he also got combined with at least one of the commoners...? (This was 10+ years ago and, unfortunately, Julius Caesar did not rewire my brain, so I'm fuzzy on the details.)
But that production (Toronto's Shakespeare in High Park, 2013) ALSO had audience participation, in the form of designated audience members playing the role of the Senate (?) by reading out lines that had been printed out and left on their seats. I guess Julius Caesar just really lends itself to audience involvement??
the thing that really stood out to me as a similarity, where you have Octavian stepping into the limelight in a way that foreshadows the future...
The production I saw ALSO ended this way, by having the last scene play out and then the stage exploded into action with people rushing on to sweep up the debris of the civil war and Octavius, like, being fitted for a fancy suit with assistants hovering around him, etc.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 01:29 pm (UTC)At IndyShakes I thought the audience involvement was a fun and innovative thing, but maybe that's just the current fashion in Julius Caesar! Everyone loves chanting "CAE-SAR! CAE-SAR! CAE-SAR!" I guess.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 03:49 pm (UTC). “If you ever became a tyrant,” I assured my friends, “I would kill you before letting you become evil.” They did not take this glowing proof of true and noble friendship in the spirit it was intended. Ahahahaha, classic. Perfect.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 05:00 pm (UTC)You: I'll kill you if you become a tyrant
Me: You'll TRY to kill me 😉
OMG this would be such a great story plot
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Date: 2024-12-20 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 09:03 pm (UTC)Still probably a more emotionally healthy Shakespeare character to imprint on as a teenager than Hamlet tbh.
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Date: 2024-12-20 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-24 06:00 pm (UTC)HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I'm so charmed.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-25 06:46 pm (UTC)