JULIUS CAESAR (Royal Shakespeare Company/The Shows Must Go On)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFe9HZOhew  

Available until: 16^th April, probably 7pm

I have never seen Julius Caesar in the list of Shakespeare’s history plays but he was a real person. He was a Roman consul general and statesman who was born in 100 BC and was assassinated 55 years later. He really was married to Calpurnia (and three other women, sometimes to 2 at the same time) and she apparently really did dream he was going to die. Caesar really was assassinated by a group that was led by Brutus and Cassius on the Ides of March which is March 15^th. 

One big difference is that Casca who is the first to stab Caesar in the play is the one who got cold feet in real life and told Caesar’s mate Mark Antony (yes he was real too) about what the others were planning but unfortunately Mark Antony wasn’t able to prevent the assassination. Cinna the Poet was real too and it’s possible he really was mistaken for Cinna the Conspirator but some people think it was some other Cinna who got killed by mistake.

So I think you could call it a history play but the thing I’m not sure about is is it still a history play if it’s set in a different part of history? This production is set in post independence Africa. Africa was decolonised between the 1950s and 1970s and this production is supposed to be based on the Arab Spring in the early 2010s (but this film came out in 2012 which sounds like the early 2010s to me) but I don’t think there was some guy called Julius Caesar in the middle of it so it’s kind of like they stuck 2 bits of history together.

That doesn’t mean this production of Julius Caesar is bad idea though. I think it’s good to do new things. I’m just wondering what makes a history play a history play. Even if you don’t count Julius Caesar as a history play you could ask the same question about the actual history plays which have been set in a different time.

This production of Julius Caesar is directed by Gregory Doran. It’s done by the Royal Shakespeare Company but some of it is filmed on location in London. It isn’t totally convincing as being about the Arab Spring because social media was a big part of that and I don’t remember seeing any phones or other devices (though the Cinna the Poet scene looks a bit like it was filmed on a phone which is so typical, this guy’s getting murdered and all these idiots have their phones out filming it) and it keeps all the original place names that Shakespeare used. But you have got all the protests and a great leader being removed from his position which did happen in the Arab Spring. 

I think this production works but it's not so much because the Arab Spring is like Julius Caesar, it's more because you do totally believe in these fairly modern men saying Shakespeare’s words. You don’t have to suspend your disbelief or anything. You just accept all the characters and you accept the situations they are all talking about and it’s a really gripping production.

I think part of the reason it works is because the actors are really good. You accept they are not really Romans because of their accents (which make Shakespeare sound so good, it’s miles more interesting than boring RP which didn’t exist in Shakespeare’s time anyway.) But the most important thing when you watch the play is that it’s a good story and that it makes sense in its own reality and this one does. (I wasn’t sure about Caesar dying on an escalator but that’s not enough to ruin the play.)

The thing about this production which is maybe not so brilliant is how it’s all about people doing their jobs and even though you do see Caesar and Brutus with their wives it’s like they’ve got there senator hats on nearly all the time and there aren’t many moments where you really see them as human beings. Obviously this can happen in any production of this play but I think usually you get to see bromances. So it’s good but there weren’t many times when I was like really totally invested in it emotionally.

Jeffery Kissoon plays Caesar and he has got lots of presence. He is obviously a really good leader when it comes to getting things done but maybe he doesn’t listen so much and that’s why everyone’s mad at him? He can be cutting and he has this aura of being totally in control. I don’t know if I like this Caesar as a person but I respect him.

Paterson Joseph plays Brutus who isn’t very nice but in the play he’s really good with words and it’s the same for the actor, he’s good at making the audience want to listen to him as well as the characters in the play. Cyril Nri (Casca) is quite majestic and very scheming and there’s a great scene where the men have a meeting in the toilets, I thought it was only girls who did that but it was quite funny and also quite dangerous and I was thinking like what if Caesar needs a wee? Or does he have his own private toilet? So that was quite tense even though I knew Caesar wouldn’t burst in because it’s not in the script. Casca had a wee and I don’t think he zipped up but I don’t want to go back and look because that would be weird but I am kind of wondering if there’s a deleted scene where someone says “Casca thou hast not zipped up mate”.

Mark Antony isn’t as bad as all the others. Ray Fearon doesn’t show that much emotion but he is a man and a lot of men are funny about that. At least he seems like a nice guy. Jude Owusu does make his scene as Cinna the Poet sad though, like he’s this totally innocent guy but he happens to be called Cinna, I blame his parents.

The women are good, Portia (Adjoah Andou) is totally nagging Brutus which was funny, I like how she’s quite jokey about it first but then she’s like “Now then Brutus none of that”. Calpurnia (Ann Ogbomo) seems quite sane and serious about her predictions so it’s like Caesar is taking her seriously not just humouring her. The two marriages have interesting dynamics.

This production of Julius Caesar isn’t the most typical production but it’s a really interesting idea and it’s full of good acting.