Julius Caesar
Dec. 23rd, 2021 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustThe weekend before last - which already feels like forever ago - I went to see Julius Caesar, performed by the Sydney Theatre Company.
This was the third time I'd seen this play - my favourite of all the Shakespeares - and every time it's still so relevant in a different way. The first and second times were by Bell Shakespeare, and fairly traditional productions. The Sydney Theatre Company, on the other hand, was a lot more experimental.
At the time I bought tickets, the website info was very sparse. I went in knowing two things:
(1) There were three actors in the cast.
(2) The production would be staged in the round.
I came out with two main takeaways:
(1) Tyranny versus democracy: somehow still a thing 2000 years later.
(2) Okay, fine, maybe Mark Antony is the bad guy here.
* I admit, I am generally Team Antony, because of loyalty kink. I am all about avenging your friend (even though he was an aspiring tyrant) over stabbing your friend in the back (because he was an aspiring tyrant). But this time, I really got Brutus, on an emotional level and not just the logical level.
* In the round meant a square stage with a big hollow cube in the centre, that could be raised or lowered as needed, and also served as a multisided screen to project images onto.
* There actually were only three actors playing the whole cast! And they did a brilliant job. The characters were distinguished by simple but distinctive changes in costume (eg Caesar wearing his red shirt like a cape, and Cassius wearing his like a sash), as well as captions on the screen (eg "Caesar enters").
- Geraldine Hakewill - Mark Antony, Casca and others
- Ewen Leslie - Caesar, Cassius and others
- Zahra Newman - Brutus and others
* The first time I saw Julius Caesar was also the first time I experienced genderswapped casting, and I was thrilled by it. I'm delighted that it's so much more commonplace now, that it wasn't even among the top three most notable things about this production. (Though it was electrifying and intense to see female Mark Antony offer herself up to be killed by female Brutus after Caesar's death.)
* I'm used to Julius Caesar being abridged, but this production went further than that. It was definitely an adaptation. There was a brand new opening narration about the history of Rome, including the context that five hundred years earlier, a tyrant was overthrown by one of the ancestors of Brutus, who swore there would be no more kings in Rome. Uncanny foreshadowing. Also echoes of Stoneface Vimes from Discworld, and I wonder if that was a deliberate reference by Pterry?
* The actors sometimes used mobile phones to livestream themselves onto the big screen. This meant the audience got a clear view of the action no matter what angle they were sitting at, as well as close ups of the actors. I was a bit worried that (1) the actors would be distracted from their performances by having to juggle filming too, and (2) they might be playing to the screen rather than to the audience. But it seemed to work okay overall. There was also some prerecorded material, which helped with the logistics of only having three actors (eg in the assassination scene).
* Let me get to my least favourite part: Mark Antony went off script.
- Partway through the legendary "Friends, Romans, countrymen" speech, she started reciting other famous historical speeches, in one long mashup of quotes ranging from "We shall fight on the beaches" to "Yes we can" to "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come". I'm not a purist, but I was torn between horrified and cringing. Most of the audience was laughing though, and the conclusion did get a cheer ("Well may we say 'God save Caesar', because nothing will save Brutus!").
- I get that the point is to state that Mark Antony is engaging in blatant demagoguery, and to show how political speech has been used for manipulation throughout history. However, I don't agree that all political rhetoric is equivalent, and I don't agree that all politicians are equivalent.
- Also, it undermines Mark Antony's beautifully crafted rhetoric, to have her devolve into spouting catchphrases and soundbites.
- Okay, so maybe I am a purist. I'm fine if you reference current events with staging or costuming or direction. (And indeed, partway through Antony's speech, she took off her toga and put on a tailored jacket and high heels, to signal she was a slick politician.) But I feel like the original words should speak for themselves.
- Later, when Cassius is giving a stirring speech to the troops, he uses the St Crispin's Day speech!
* It's impossible for a play that features Capitol riots to ignore, well, the Capitol riots. I always knew Shakespeare was against inciting the mob to violence, but watching those scenes is far more uncomfortable now. (Poor Cinna the poet, dragged out of his office cubicle by the mob.) This production also featured a montage of social media videos from conspiracy theorists, convinced that Caesar would return and other wild delusions.
* Octavian, the richest man in Rome, was presented as a tech mogul in a suit. Conferences between the military leaders were via Zoom.
* At the end of the play, there was a montage of Roman emperors, that then turned into a rapid montage of kings, rulers, and politicians, continuing up until the present day - I guess to say that politics, power, and corruption never go away.
* The final scene was video game footage of a first person shooter, where Mark Antony in a toga ran through a virtual Rome, machine gunning people until she reached the dais, where she lifted the laurel crown onto her head. Forget the literal assassination of Caesar, this was character assassination of Antony. But even though they did him dirty, overall I was impressed by this production.
I'm not a fan of all their creative choices. But I appreciate that they had something to say and said it so strongly. A bold, innovative, and worthwhile production.
Democracy. Still precious and fragile. Still needs defending.
This was the third time I'd seen this play - my favourite of all the Shakespeares - and every time it's still so relevant in a different way. The first and second times were by Bell Shakespeare, and fairly traditional productions. The Sydney Theatre Company, on the other hand, was a lot more experimental.
At the time I bought tickets, the website info was very sparse. I went in knowing two things:
(1) There were three actors in the cast.
(2) The production would be staged in the round.
I came out with two main takeaways:
(1) Tyranny versus democracy: somehow still a thing 2000 years later.
(2) Okay, fine, maybe Mark Antony is the bad guy here.
* I admit, I am generally Team Antony, because of loyalty kink. I am all about avenging your friend (even though he was an aspiring tyrant) over stabbing your friend in the back (because he was an aspiring tyrant). But this time, I really got Brutus, on an emotional level and not just the logical level.
* In the round meant a square stage with a big hollow cube in the centre, that could be raised or lowered as needed, and also served as a multisided screen to project images onto.
* There actually were only three actors playing the whole cast! And they did a brilliant job. The characters were distinguished by simple but distinctive changes in costume (eg Caesar wearing his red shirt like a cape, and Cassius wearing his like a sash), as well as captions on the screen (eg "Caesar enters").
- Geraldine Hakewill - Mark Antony, Casca and others
- Ewen Leslie - Caesar, Cassius and others
- Zahra Newman - Brutus and others
* The first time I saw Julius Caesar was also the first time I experienced genderswapped casting, and I was thrilled by it. I'm delighted that it's so much more commonplace now, that it wasn't even among the top three most notable things about this production. (Though it was electrifying and intense to see female Mark Antony offer herself up to be killed by female Brutus after Caesar's death.)
* I'm used to Julius Caesar being abridged, but this production went further than that. It was definitely an adaptation. There was a brand new opening narration about the history of Rome, including the context that five hundred years earlier, a tyrant was overthrown by one of the ancestors of Brutus, who swore there would be no more kings in Rome. Uncanny foreshadowing. Also echoes of Stoneface Vimes from Discworld, and I wonder if that was a deliberate reference by Pterry?
* The actors sometimes used mobile phones to livestream themselves onto the big screen. This meant the audience got a clear view of the action no matter what angle they were sitting at, as well as close ups of the actors. I was a bit worried that (1) the actors would be distracted from their performances by having to juggle filming too, and (2) they might be playing to the screen rather than to the audience. But it seemed to work okay overall. There was also some prerecorded material, which helped with the logistics of only having three actors (eg in the assassination scene).
* Let me get to my least favourite part: Mark Antony went off script.
- Partway through the legendary "Friends, Romans, countrymen" speech, she started reciting other famous historical speeches, in one long mashup of quotes ranging from "We shall fight on the beaches" to "Yes we can" to "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come". I'm not a purist, but I was torn between horrified and cringing. Most of the audience was laughing though, and the conclusion did get a cheer ("Well may we say 'God save Caesar', because nothing will save Brutus!").
- I get that the point is to state that Mark Antony is engaging in blatant demagoguery, and to show how political speech has been used for manipulation throughout history. However, I don't agree that all political rhetoric is equivalent, and I don't agree that all politicians are equivalent.
- Also, it undermines Mark Antony's beautifully crafted rhetoric, to have her devolve into spouting catchphrases and soundbites.
- Okay, so maybe I am a purist. I'm fine if you reference current events with staging or costuming or direction. (And indeed, partway through Antony's speech, she took off her toga and put on a tailored jacket and high heels, to signal she was a slick politician.) But I feel like the original words should speak for themselves.
- Later, when Cassius is giving a stirring speech to the troops, he uses the St Crispin's Day speech!
* It's impossible for a play that features Capitol riots to ignore, well, the Capitol riots. I always knew Shakespeare was against inciting the mob to violence, but watching those scenes is far more uncomfortable now. (Poor Cinna the poet, dragged out of his office cubicle by the mob.) This production also featured a montage of social media videos from conspiracy theorists, convinced that Caesar would return and other wild delusions.
* Octavian, the richest man in Rome, was presented as a tech mogul in a suit. Conferences between the military leaders were via Zoom.
* At the end of the play, there was a montage of Roman emperors, that then turned into a rapid montage of kings, rulers, and politicians, continuing up until the present day - I guess to say that politics, power, and corruption never go away.
* The final scene was video game footage of a first person shooter, where Mark Antony in a toga ran through a virtual Rome, machine gunning people until she reached the dais, where she lifted the laurel crown onto her head. Forget the literal assassination of Caesar, this was character assassination of Antony. But even though they did him dirty, overall I was impressed by this production.
I'm not a fan of all their creative choices. But I appreciate that they had something to say and said it so strongly. A bold, innovative, and worthwhile production.
Democracy. Still precious and fragile. Still needs defending.
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Date: 2022-02-19 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-22 12:44 am (UTC)