Word: caesar
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...Undershaft (Jane Alexander), who does the Christian God's goodly work among the poor, owns the play's title, it is her munitions tycoon of a father, Andrew (Lee Richardson), wielding the twin thunderbolts of "money and gunpowder," who is the capitalistic Zeus. Shaw himself had a Caesar complex. He was fascinated by absolute power and that explained his deplorable temporary enthusiasms for Hitler and Stalin. But his Undershaft is of another breed. This merchant of death is also an apostle of life...
...when a mysterious virus has wiped out all household pets. Apes have taken the place of dogs and cats and have been trained to perform menial tasks (filing, sweeping up, waiting on tables). They are treated like slaves by a repressive government until one of them, named Caesar, leads an open revolt. Scenarist Paul Dehn sometimes lets his satire turn into sermonizing, but he also engineers a clever and jauntily cynical reversal of sympathies whereby audiences cheer the marauding apes in their campaign to overcome mankind...
...Festival debuts of Paul Hecht and Salome Jens fall short of one's hopes, the same cannot be said of the debut here of Philip Kerr, who plays Octavius in both Caesar and Antony. His is classical acting of the first order. His three scenes as a 20-year-old in Caesar are enough to indicate his cool command of his craft. In Antony he has 13 scenes as the young triumvir who emerges victorious and will soon become Emperor Augustus. Kerr's acorn grows into a strong...
...contrast between stern Rome and luxuriant Egypt in his sets; especially striking are the warm golds that adorn Alexandria, and the 15-foot-high double columns that support Cleopatra's monument--all skillfully lit by Marc Weiss. John Morris's music is markedly better than what he provided for Caesar, though it is still a bit obvious in its quasi-exotic effects...
Despite all the things wrong with this Antony and Cleopatra it was worth doing--particularly as a companion piece to Julius Caesar and as a vehicle for Philip Kerr's Octavius, which we are not likely ever to see excelled...