Julius Caesar

You Can Run, but You Can’t Ides

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 4^th May

Review by Andrew Lawston

Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s more political plays, and its themes of the perils of populism and corruption make it particularly resonant in our own charged political age.  On the Judi Dench Playhouse stage, a young student falls asleep while reading and apparently dreams a five act tragedy.

From Alex Marker’s stark set design adorned with two marble benches, to the militaristic costumes designed by Carla Evans, Caesar’s Rome is unmistakably fascist, as its elite stride around in medal-laden uniforms, and faceless police officers beat and abduct protestors on the street.  Caesar himself is played with great relish by Max Fisher and comes across as a mixture of Mussolini, Don Corleone, and Juan Peron.  It hopefully shouldn’t be a spoiler to note that the actor playing Caesar needs to get a strong performance in early, and Fisher delivers a portrayal large enough to cast a long shadow over the events of the second half.

While Caesar is basking in the adulation of the Roman people and ostentatiously refusing crowns, the senators, however, are revolting.  James Burgess is in particularly lean and hungry-looking form as Cassius, insinuating and generally sounding out the bluff and honest Ant Foran as Brutus.
The pair are joined by Casca who, in many productions, can only be described as “the third one”.  Here, he is played by David Erdos with great panache as a swaggering cardinal, generally with a cigarette dangling disdainfully from one hand, and is an absolute delight.

In conjunction with Catherine Luff’s Trebonius and Julian Cassey’s Cinna, the senators agree that Caesar must die.  All of this plotting is witnessed by Hyssop Benson’s character; wearing school uniform, Benson alternates roles between the dreaming student, a simpering Calpurnia pouting for the press, a soldier, or the disembodied voice of a soothsayer spreading dire warnings about a certain date in March.  On stage throughout the production, reacting to events, Benson’s presence ties the whole show together, complete with some skilled riding of a micro-scooter at dizzying speed.

Despite Benson’s constant presence on stage, sometimes as Calpurnia beseeching Caesar to stay at home on the Ides of March, and likewise haunting entreaties from Priya Patel’s Portia to Brutus, Julius Caesar is a play in which the female characters’ misgivings and good advice are universally ignored.  As events reach their inevitable bloody climax towards the end of the first half, Julian Smith’s dishevelled and bleary-eyed Mark Antony steps up to become an apparent ally to the conspirators, Cassius almost joins the ranks of ignored wives as a Roman Cassandra, as he consistently gives the other conspirators excellent advice that they disregard.

Sure enough, the second half opens with Mark Antony delivering his explosive funeral speech.  This scene is a particular highlight, as is often the case in productions of Julius Caesar, with members of the company having a great time cheering Antony on from the back of the auditorium, even as the conspirators sit stony-faced and appalled in the front row, gradually storming out as the crowd’s mood turns.  Casca is the last to leave, coldly flicking ash from his cigarette over Caesar’s shroud as he goes, in a quietly wonderful flourish.

Once Caesar himself has been disposed of, Mark Antony stops partying and wears a uniform almost identical to that of Cassius.  As the two actors are of a similar height and build, it’s a nice touch from director Mark Oldknow and costumed designer Carla Evans that seems to suggest that one despot is very much like another.

On a similar note, Cinna the conspirator (as opposed to Cinna the Poet, a game Stephen Mirré who is brutally despatched for his “bad verses”) pointedly vanishes during the interval as Julian Casey switches sides to play Octavius, a part in which he shines more than as Cinna.  Although this is probably at least partly an exercise in economic casting, it reinforces the idea that the civil war will deliver the same results regardless of which side wins.

As the conspirators’ plot begins to unravel, there is plenty of scope for Alasdair Graebner’s lighting and Russell Fleet’s sound to depict battles, riots, and civil unrest, and the pre-recorded voices for the play’s supernatural elements heighten the drama further.  With Trebonius’s Catherine Luff doubling as fight arranger, there is also plenty of on-stage action.

Julius Caesar’s production values are top notch across the board, however the pace occasionally strayed into the languid, possibly the result of some first night jitters.  Hopefully it will tighten up across its run to become a truly compelling production of this classic play.

Andrew Lawston, April 2024

Photography courtesy of Questors