All Hail, Julius Caesar at The American Repertory Theatre
A Contemporary Adaptation that Vividly Commands
By: Mark Favermann - Feb 25, 2008
Julius Caesar
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Arthur Nauzyciel
Presented by The American Repertory Theatre
http://www.amrep.org/
February 9 - March 16, 2008
At The Loeb Drama Center
Cambridge, MA
Cast and Crew
Marcus Brutus, Jim True-Frost
Mark Anthony, James Waterston
Portia/Calpurnia, Sara Kathryn Bakker
Octavius, Thomas Kelley
Lucius, the boy, Jared Craig
Lepidus, Will LeBow
Julius Caesar, Thomas Derrah
Cicero, Jeremy Geidt
Cassius, Mark L. Montgomery
Soothsayer, Kunal Prasad
Casca, Remo Airaldi
Trebonius, Daniel Le
Decius Brutus, Neil Patrick Stewart
Metellus Cimber, Gardiner Comfort
Cinna, Perry Jackson
Scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez
Costume design by James Schuette
Lighting design by Scott Zielinski
Sound design by David Remedios
We all learned in high school that Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare that portrays the conspiracy against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar. It shows his violent assassination and its political and rather savage aftermath. Or, at least we were supposed to have learned about it. Most of our school experiences with classic Shakespeare were less than enlightening. Often, they were sort of like a forced mental march in a barren literary parade grounds. And the actors were all in togas, too. So, it was with pleasure and a bit of amused awe that I viewed this current and often brilliant rendering of Julius Caesar at The American Repertory Theatre.
Surprise is the hallmark of ART's theatrical presentations. This creative interpretation of Julius Caesar is at the same high quality that we have learned to expect from all of ART's productions. At the highest level, dramatic visual excitement is stylistically expressed by talented young French director Arthur Nauzyciel's unique interpretation of the Greek historian Plutarch's and the Strafford Bard's tragedy. Though the title of the play is Julius Caesar, Caesar is not the central character in its action. He actually appears in only three scenes and dies at the beginning of the third act.
The true protagonist of the play is Marcus Brutus, and the central drama is his psychological struggle between the conflicting demands of individual honor, family loyalty, Roman patriotism, and personal friendship. Yet, Caesar is the major presence throughout the drama. He symbolizes Roman power as well as corruption, the past and the future and political leadership that is good as well as evil. He is a grey figure as most of the other fully developed characters are, neither black or white in their personality or pronouncements, but very human. How director Nauzyciel frames this situation gives this presentation its unique voice and dreamlike vision.
This is a play about succession that reflected the general anxiety of late 16th Century England. First performed in 1599 while Queen Elizabeth reigned. She was a strong ruler and rather elderly, but had stubbornly refused to name a successor. The fear at the time was that a civil war similar to that of Rome's might break out after her death. Part of Shakespeare's great genius was to use historical references to illustrate and to illuminate universal situations. Julius Caesar is one of the greatest theatrical studies of tyranny, revolution, and civil war. It is also a highly personal portrayal of friendships and political and even familial alliances ripped apart by political ambition and the seduction of power. This tragedy is focused upon three of Shakespeare's most compelling characters – Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, and Mark Antony.
Brutus allows himself to be enticed into joining a group of conspiring senators. Led by Caius Cassius (the actor portraying him does have a lean and hungry look), the group suspects that Caesar intends to turn republican Rome into his monarchy. Early scenes deal mainly with Brutus' arguments with Cassius and his struggle with his own conscience. Growing negative public support turns the once loyal Brutus against Caesar. Actually, this was faked by Cassius who wrote letters to Brutus in different handwritings. These letters made Brutus reluctantly join the conspiracy. A soothsayer warns Caesar to "beware the Ides of March," and Caesar's wife speaks to him of strange dreams suggesting bad things will befall him. Caesar ignores the warnings, and the situation ends in his assassination at the Capitol by the conspirators on that day. Caesar's assassination occurs about halfway through the play.
The conspirators created a superficial motive for the assassination by a petition brought by Metellus Cimber, pleading on behalf of his banished brother. As Caesar, predictably, rejects the petition, Casca stabs Caesar in the back of his neck, and the others follow stabbing him. Brutus is last. Here, Caesar utters the line "Et tu, Brute?". The conspirators make clear that they did this act for Rome, not for their own purposes. They do not attempt to flee the scene but instead act victoriously.
After Caesar's death, however, plans are made for Caesar's funeral. Brutus is to speak; then Anthony is to speak. Mark Antony, with an eloquent speech over Caesar's corpse says the much-quoted "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..." Anthony turns public opinion against the assassins by manipulating the emotions of the common people. This is in contrast to the rational tone of Brutus' speech. Antony provokes the mob to drive the conspirators from Rome.
Act Four begins with a quarrel scene. Brutus attacks Cassius for soiling the noble act of regicide by accepting bribes. The two are reconciled, but as they prepare for war with Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son, Octavian aka Octavius, Caesar's ghost appears to Brutus with a warning of defeat. During the battle, things go badly for the conspirators. Both Brutus and Cassius choose to commit suicide rather than to be captured. The play ends with Anthony's tribute to Brutus, who has remained "the noblest Roman of them all," and hints at the friction between Mark Antony and Octavius. This will soon characterize another of Shakespeare's well-known Roman plays, Antony and Cleopatra.
At the ART, the acting seems surprisingly fresh. Jim True-Frost's Brutus, James Waterson's Anthony and Mark Montgomery's Cassius were all standout. Sara Kathryn Bakker added quality to her two roles as Portia and Calpurnia. All of the actors were quite good. Interestingly, True-Frost played a conflicted middle school teacher on the acclaimed and violent series The Wire on HBO. Waterson is the son of Law and Order's veteran actor, Sam Waterson. Is this symbolic?
The set was interesting as well. Designer Riccardo Hernandez creates a Post-modern Roman amphitheater by mirroring the theatre seating on the back of the stage. This is a visual statement that is at once contemporary as well as historical and ancient. The sound by David Remedios was superb as well.
Director Arthur Nauzyciel has recently been appointed Artistic Director of the National Theatre in the City of Orléans, France. This gives this Julius Caesar particular significance, because it will probably be the last independent production he will be directing for quite awhile. Many others have said that Julius Caesar is a great play for our own time as its subject is regime change and political uncertainty. But this director felt that may be a too easy and a too limited reading of Shakespeare's text. To him, that would have revealed nothing new or added insight into what we already know. Rather, he was interested in what is unfamiliar in the text. He wanted to develop its sense of history, its ghosts, and its supernatural atmosphere.
Nauzyciel often superimposes a dreamlike quality to his productions. These are translated into an ethereal, shifting tone that combines both ancient, modern and even post-modern elements. Surprises are the rule here. This often runs counter to contemporary performance tradition. Here, for instance, Julius Caesar is dressed in a tuxedo and then in modern army fatigues. The director feels that we go to the theatre not only to see reflections of ourselves, but also we go to be stimulated by fantasy and imagination. Much like Frederico Fellini's dreamlike yet realistic landscapes, Nauzyciel reveals this production of Julius Caesar psychologically, symbolically, viscerally and even subconsciously. I expected the late Marcello Mastroianni to show up at any time.
In fact, I felt that the opening scene of the play was an echo of a Fellini movie cocktail party in any of several films. Various characters looked and even moved like the Italian movie genius' cast members would. This production ends in a line dance that included cast members, playing living and dead characters, musicians and stagehands. This was a Felliniesque touch as well. If Arthur Nauzyciel consciously included Fellini's dream aura, his subtle use of the movie maestro's craft was brilliant.
Added to this is a mix of 1960's cabaret music, references to "Great Caesar's Ghost" (which was a favorite swear of Perry White, Clark Kent aka Superman's Daily Planet editor) as young mute Lucius wore a Superman costume after the actual assassination scene, and the literal limousine from the JFK assassination along with several others like a large wing (Is it an angel, deus ex machina, or Icarus?). This was a bouillabaisse of tasty theatrical metaphors, a series of dramatic visual ingredients, that developed into a delicious and rather unique soup of sometimes subtle and often very rich flavors.
The director makes his rather unique approach to Julius Caesar clearly illuminate the Shakespearean text. We actually understand more, and elements are revealed better than in traditional readings of the play. Nauzyciel's imagination adds insightful creative value to a classic. Hail Julius Caesar. Hail Arthur Nauzyciel. Hail the American Repertory Theatre. Don't miss it.