Julius Caesar by William
Shakespeare.
Directed and designed by Caitlin
Baker. Lighting design by Lachlan Houen. Composer and sound designer Paris
Sharkie. Associate sound designer Neville Pyr. PROPS Master Yanina Clifton.
Fight choreographer Lachlan Ruffy. Assistant direvctor Kat Dunkerley. Stage
Manager Sienna Curnow. Production photos Jane Duong. CAST: Lachlan Ruffy.
Yanina Clifton. Colin Giles. Michael Sparks. Karen Vickery. Amy Kowalczuk.
Sophia Mellink. Pris Sharkie. Joshua James. Pete Stiles. Ian Russell. Chaika
Theatre. ACT HUB. July 23 – August 2 2025. Bookings: 62108748 oe
enquiries@acthub.com.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
In 1959 I played Lucius , Brutus’s boy servant in the Shakespearian Drama Group’s production of Julius Caesar. I mention this to highlight the contrast with Chaika Theatre ’s 2025 production of Shakespeare’s political drama currently being performed at ACT HUB. In 1959 the actors wore togas and Roman apparel. In Baker’s production they wear contemporary costuming in the first half and military fatigues and modern combat wear in the heavily edited second half. The ‘59 production was performed on a large proscenium stage with rostra to represent the forum and various locations in Rome. Baker’s set design at the ACT HUB venue comprises a promenade setting with the audience seated on either side in intimate proximity of the actors. The scene is set for a visceral and thrilling connection between audience and actors. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar becomes , like the Soothsayer, a warning for our time.
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| Lachlan Ruffy as Brutus. Yanina Clifton as Cassius |
Director Baker has said in an interview that Chaika is dragging Julius Caesar “kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The production pulsates with a fiery energy, driven by intensity, performed with burning conviction and hurtling the impact of Caesar’s assassination into a modern age still confronting the cause and tragic consequence of ambition, envy and human conflict. By presenting the play in the minimalist setting of a central platform with a profile outline of Caesar’s head on a banner at the end of the platform.
Chaika’s production compels our
engagement with Shakespeare’s language spoken mostly trippingly on the tongue, action, including some powerfully
choreographed battle scenes by Lachlan Ruffy and persuasive rhetoric . One
cannot help but feel that Shakespeare would be well pleased with Chaika’s
performance of a play that continues to reverberate with relevance.
In keeping with her intention to give Shakespeare’s play its due relevance to our time, Baker has made some interesting decisions, chiefly to cast Yanina Clifton as Cassius and to have Amy Kowalczuk play both Brutus’s wife Portia and Caesar’s wife Calpurnia in a clever piece of casting to highlight in this instance the plight of the wife’s subjection to male authority. Clifton’s Cassius loses none of the snide disdain for Michael Sparks’s ailing Caesar or the manipulative guile of the envious villain. Nor does Karen Vickery’s Casca lose any of the threatning menace of a murderous plotter. Baker’s casting is translucent, shining a light, not so much on gender, but on motive and the invidious power of political and personal manipulation.
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| Michael Sparks as Julius Caesar |
Above all, Chaika’s production presents a showcase of some of Canberra’s finest performers capturing the suspense and the tension of Shakespeare’s universal story of jealousy, ambition and betrayal. Colin Giles’s initial appearance as a modern day marathon runner risks diminishing the gravitas of the character, but instead provides a striking contrast as we see him transform to an orator and soldier of enormous stature. Giles stamps the character with his own impression of a loyal friend seeking revenge and justice for his revered leader’s cruel assassination. Lachlan Ruffy as Brutus dominates the stage. His is a riveting performance of an honourable man trapped in a moral dilemma that threatens the very essence of the noble hero. Ruffy’s Brutus suffers the torment of the fatal flaw of the tragic hero.
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| Yanina Clifton and Karen Vickery as Casca |
What Baker and her cast and creatives have achieved is a dynamic retelling of an ancient event that still echoes through the history of time. Each scene, often complemented by Paris Sharkie’s composition and sound design, in association with Neville Pye, propels the action with forceful performances. There is the violence and threat of the crowd scenes, the intimacy and poignancy of the Brutus and Portia scene. Inevitability erupts in the scene between Michael Sparks’s foolish Caesar and Calpurnia, or in Cassius’s persuasive argument to Brutus or Marc Antony’s rousing of the dogs of war in his speech to the crowd. The inevitable foreboding of retribution is perfectly played by Clifton and Ruffy in the final meeting of the two allies. Chaika’s Julius Caesar uncovers a rich lode of gripping theatrical moments that make this production a Shakespearian drama not to be missed.
