Word: caesar
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Unlike last year's Hamlet, though, Julius Caesar is a compelling production. It has many of the OCSC's characteristics, especially an unending search for modernism which has been the company's trademark. Many of the approaches to costuming and scenery as well as many of the interpretations of the text which the company has taken are questionable, but the net effect is to give an air of electricity to a play which has often seemed simply unactable...
...this production, Dick Goodall plays Caesar as a white-greatcoated, tophatted gentleman by Oscar Wilde out of Henry James. The rest of the men in the cast appear in motley bodystockings, and the women in rather shapeless, unflattering costumes. The effect is stunning, providing a brilliant contrast in which Caesar emerges as the master spirit of his age, surrounded by men of lesser vision who do not begin to approach his stature. The costuming neutralizes Shaw's famous criticism that this play turns the giant of ancient history into a cavilling buffoon. Goodall's Caesar is masterful, dominating the play...
...Caesar is to be played up, it must of necessity be at the expense of Brutus. Andrew Hilton's Brutus is lost from the start, when he comes onstage in a drab bodystocking which fails to distinguish him from even the three-line walk-ons. He simply lacks the physical stature which Brutus requires to dominate the play. There is nothing wrong with Hilton's approach to the role, but his costuming detracts severely from his credibility. This defect changes the entire emphasis of the play. Normally, Julius Caesar is a drama which builds consistently to Antony's eulogy...
...keep the play going, without dragging even in the normally dreadful third act. The actors do interesting tricks with the phrasing, as when James Harris as Antony uses the line "Friends, Romans, Countrymen..." as a desperate attempt to get the attention of a hostile crowd busy snarling at Caesar's body. Harris's Antony transcends his bodystocking to establish a character, as does David Snodin's Cassius. Snodin's phrasing is highly eclectic, bringing out nuances from his speeches which are not normally developed, and nicely establishing Cassius as a major character, far better than any of the other conspirators...
Much of the production depends on mime, on suggesting rather than acting out. There are no props: even Caesar's mantle, which Antony addresses in his funeral oration, is made out of empty air. The assassination and battle scenes are elaborately choreographed and acted out tableaux, replete with ritualistic mock blows and falls. Somehow, they work in a way that a literal reading of the script never could. The scene of Caesar's ghost, mocking the actions of the servant as he holds the sword on which Brutus falls is utterly chilling, as no prop-ridden version could...