Written by William Shakespeare – Directed by James
Evans
Set and Costume design by Anna Tregloan – Lighting
designed by Verity HampsonComposer and sound designer –Nate Edmondson
Presented by Bell Shakespeare - The Playhouse – Canberra Theatre Centre -12-20 October,2018.
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
The cast of "Julius Caesar" |
In its relentless drive for new resonances and ever
more innovative ways of presenting Shakespeare, Bell Shakespeare, with this
production of “Julius Caesar”, has finally succeeded in rendering at least one of
his plays, virtually incomprehensible to anyone other than welded-on Shakespeare
devotees.
Anna Tregloan’s
steam-punk set and op-shop costumes, provide no clues as to time, place
or status of the characters, and the gender-blind, double (even triple) casting,
make it extremely difficult to work out who is playing which part unless a name
is mentioned, reducing the play to a series of unfathomable set pieces.
James Evans, who replaced an indisposed Ivan Donato at
short notice for the Canberra season, dominated the stage, physically and
vocally, with a fine, well-shaped interpretation as Brutus, demonstrating how
interesting the production might have been had any of the rest of the ensemble
been able to match his performance. Only
Nick Simpson-Deeks, a passionate and fraught Cassius, came close to challenging
Evan’s dominance in their second- act exchange.
Kenneth Ransom as Julius Caesar in Bell Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". |
Despite his striking resemblance to Barack Obama, and robbed of any semblance of grandeur by his drab costumes and curious high-pitched vocal delivery, Kenneth Ransom was a strangely disinterested Caesar, displaying little of the qualities attributed to him by Mark Antony.
Sara Zwangobani a Mark Antony Photo: Prudence Upton |
Sara Zwangobani provided the high point with her
performance of Mark Antony’s famous funeral oration, which was punctuated with
thundering crescendo’s from Nate Edmondson’s cinematic score. Although, as she addressed
her friends, Romans and countrymen, standing in front of a microphone, on a
tiny balcony, the thought that she might at any moment break into “Don’t Cry
for Me Argentina” seemed a distinct possibility.
Elsewhere the tiny cast was kept busy scampering
around the setting, putting up and pulling down flags and revolutionary banners, and trying
unsuccessfully to convince as crowds, and a variety of characters, declaiming
speeches with gestures that might have worked had they been wearing togas, but
looked rather ridiculous in tee-shirts.
Those willing to puzzle over the complexities of
Shakespeare’s text may find this presentation satisfying, but for others simply
looking to become caught up in the grandeur and intrigue of one Shakespeare’s
most famous plays, this grunge production probably isn’t the one for them.