Reviewed by James Karas
The National Theatre’s production
of Julius
Caesar that was broadcast live to cinemas presents an original reading
of the play in a new theatre in London. Nicholas Hytner ran the National
Theatre for 12 years and upon leaving it he founded, with Nick Star, the Bridge
Theatre near Tower Bridge in London.
Julius Caesar is produced
in a theatre-in-the-round with a stage in the middle and people standing around
the stage. The production begins with a rock concert that lasts for about a
quarter of an hour. The musician are wearing T-shirts that read JUST DO IT!
JULIUS CAESAR and a very youthful crowd enjoys the loud music. The tribunes
appear among the crowd and start castigating them for taking time off for no
apparent reason. The concert crowd becomes the Roman mob attending the return
of Caesar.
David Morrissey as Mark Anthony
and Ben Whishaw as Brutus. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
Caesar (David Calder) enters, a
gray, overweight man in a suit wearing a red baseball cap with the Just Do It!!
motto on it and looking very much like Donald Trump. The costumes are all
modern casual wear. When Caesar faints from the falling sickness we see him
being taken away in a wheel chair with an oxygen mask on. Nice touch to
indicate that this man who perhaps wants to become king but pretends the
opposite is past his best before date.
The play is set in a modern war
zone with automatic weapons and pistols and a generous use of bullets. The
actors are in the middle of the audience so that at about half of the
spectators watch the back of the players. The audience in the movie house have
no such restriction because there are camera on all sides and we have a full
view of the action all the time.
All the action takes place during
darkness and we see the small square platform and some members of the audience
in the beginning. Once the war starts and there is broken furniture and wires all
over to indicate a war zone. At least we get glimpses of it but rarely do we see
the whole stage. When there are flashes of light and we get a long shot and we
get some appreciation of the havoc that is in front of us but when the actors
speak the camera usually focuses on them. When the camera focuses on the
speakers we usually see only a dark background.
This produces an uneasy feeling.
You know there is a great deal going on and at times all you see is faces of
characters but no context. It’s like experiencing war scenes without really
getting a good look at them.
Ben Whishaw plays the honourable
Brutus. Whishaw’s performance is distinguished by his ability to show
intelligence, integrity and a fundamental weakness. Cassius has an instinctive
understanding of his friend’s character and is able to manipulate him and
convince him to join the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. A highly nuanced and
effective performance by Whishaw.
Photo: Manuel Harlan
Hytner has cast woman in some of
the major roles. They are referred to by the feminine pronoun but aside from
that they are men. Michelle Fairley is a clever, scheming and cunning Cassius
able to control and pervert people to his wishes. She gives us a superb performance.
Kit Young’s Octavius is petulant,
arrogant and dismissive of others and an emperor in the making. David
Morrissey’s Mark Antony is a capable politician who is ambitious but lacks the
unscrupulousness and instinct for going for the jugular.
Hytner is an old hand at
directing Shakespeare and he has gathered a cast that delivers Shakespeare’s
lines clearly, meticulously with attention to every syllable. It is no small
achievement.
The production is meticulous and
nuanced but it suffers by the way it is presented in the movie house. I felt
that I missed as great deal of the bigger picture although I enjoyed the close-ups
and the avoidance of having to watch actors’ backs.
__________
Julius Caesar by
William Shakespeare was shown in select Cineplex theatres on March 22, 2018.
For more information visit www.cineplex.com/events.
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