Monday (I think) we went to see Julius Caesar at the RSC. A lot of the people in my group really did not like this play. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.
The show began with a fight between the half human/half animal forms of Romulus and Remus. This scene was both interesting and effective to me. Interesting in the fact that it was something I would never have thought to portray on stage in this play and effective in the fact that it really sets the tone for the rest of the evening, bloody.
I liked the actor who played Brutus, Sam Troughton. He was a younger guy, which some found ineffective, but I didn't even notice it. One image in particular that I remember was the scene when Cassius and the conspirators come to Brutus’ home to try to recruit him to their cause. They all came in cloaked and wearing black like Death Eaters, while Brutus wore white for most of the play. That costuming choice showed his “purity” of motives and also provided a stark contrast to the perhaps selfish motives of the others.
One thing I found interesting was that these black figures never enveloped Brutus. He was never surround and forced or bullied to make his decision. He willingly stepped into the circle of trust among these dark men (literally and figuratively). I never felt sorry for Brutus except in the fact that I knew his end. I thought the actor showed how Brutus made his own decision to become a murderer out of what he though were pure intentions, to save the republic from a tyrant.
Julius Caesar was played effectively by the amazing actor Greg Hicks except for the fact that his voice was not as commanding as I had expected. That was a general problem in the play but I think it may have just been the acoustics of the set. Julius Caesar seemed egotistical an authoritative but not in a way that was an immediate threat to the republic of Rome.
So there seemed to be an equal balance between the possibility of Julius Caesar reaching the point where he was a power hungry dictator and the uncalculated brash actions of the conspirators. The death scene was really good! Instead of just dying instantly when stabbed, he first put up a pretty good fight and then staggered down his "throne" and lingered there before poignantly delivering the famous line "Et tu, Brute?" Chills.
I also liked Cassius played by John Mackay. I like it when the bad guys are likeable! You become wrapped into their thoughts and their motives because they don’t seem so bad but then you remember what they are actually capable of and you are scared of them again! I felt like that’s how Cassius was. He was manipulative enough to bring Brutus to their side, but yet you still feel sorry for him when he dies (at least I did). Although his Scottish accent that came out sometimes was really distracting. Either have the accent or don’t have the accent. In this picture he's on the right and Brutus is on the left.
Mark Antony was good as well. He is really a slippery character oscillating between supporting the murder of the tyrant Caesar, but then mourning the loss of his best friend Caesar. Darrell D'Silva has been absolutely fantastic in everything I've seen him in here.
The women in it were ok, but the moral of this story should just be to listen to women because they are a heck of a lot smarter than men are.
When Julius Caesar doesn't listen to his wife, he dies and Brutus won't share anything with his wife, she kills herself and then he dies.
The thing that was most detrimental to the production were these projection screens made of black cloth that were set along the back of the stage. They filmed the actors before hand and used their images in crowd scenes and battles. It was a little strange. The production was not enhanced by these projected images. Sound effects of grounds and battles are helpful for calculating the scale of an event, but a visual is not needed for everything. But perhaps there are members of an audience who needed that help. So although I would not have done this as a director as it added nothing to the play, I don’t have strong feelings against it.
Overall it was not my favorite production. There were better ways to have interpreted this play artistically and the director might have made better choices to tell the story more clearly. I still found plenty of things to take away from the play. The acting was absolutely splendid so it's really a shame when something out of the actor's control detracts from their play.
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