Then in London, and on a UK tour.The story of Julius Caesar and its relationship to Roman history and Renaissance culture In a year that has already seen an abundance of visiting Shakespeare, it is good to be reminded that we haven't lost the power to radically reinvent the plays ourselves. But Michael Vale's set, with its sun-drenched stone steps, gives it a physical reality Akintayo Akinbode's music moves from the carnivalesque to the ominous and Doran's production gives the play's central debate about the necessary political murder a new immediacy. No one production can ever make total sense of this slippery play. Ray Fearon's Mark Antony has a wonderfully dangerous charisma but could make more use of a middle-register in his manipulation of the mob.īut there is a superb Caesar from Jeffery Kissoon who, with his fly whisk and white suit, evokes memories of a whole line of African potentates while also suggesting there is a fierce courage about a man who claims: "Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous then he."Īnd, in a male-dominated play, there are strong cameos from Adjoa Andoh and Ann Ogbomo, who, as the wives, respectively, of Brutus and Caesar display a vehement sense of reality denied their deluded husbands. ![]() Not even Doran, who sensibly dispenses with an interval, can disguise the anticlimax of the battle scenes and once or twice, for all the production's vigour, I felt that vocal volume was replacing subtlety. What makes this doubly effective here is that everyone knows Brutus to be wrong, no one more so than Cyril Nri's admirable, white-suited Cassius, who is clearly the brains behind the conspiracy.Įveryone looks on in disbelief when Brutus announces that Mark Antony is to be spared but, in one breathtaking moment, Nri looks ready to break ranks and stab Caesar's ally after the assassination, only to find his hand stayed by Brutus.Īnd Nri reacts with volcanic anger when taunted by Mark Antony, on the eve of battle, with being one of Caesar's "flatterers" knowing that history could have been different if he had only had his own way. I used to think Brutus was the idealist in a world of realpolitik: Joseph excellently shows him to be a self-righteous blunderer. Joseph proudly beats his breast when he talks of "my ancestors", makes a series of catastrophic tactical errors, and self-deludedly announces, in speaking of Caesar's killing, that "we shall be called purgers, not murderers". But Paterson Joseph goes much further than most by showing Brutus to be a man of quixotic temper swathed in self-regard. Ever since the late John Wood played the part at Stratford 40 years ago, the myth of Brutus as the noblest Roman in a batch of envious conspirators has been systematically demolished. Even if Africa is not alone in its belief in the power of spirits, the soothsayer here becomes a magical force who acts as a ubiquitous shaman.īut the real strength of Doran's production lies in its attention to character. It also reminds us that this is a play filled with prophecies, portents, dreams and, incidentally, leonine images. ![]() ![]() But the African setting doesn't simply give new edge to the ethical debate about political murder.
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