JULIUS CAESAR till 10 October.
JULIUS CAESAR: William Shakespeare
RSC: Main House
Runs: 2h 40m, one interval, in repertory till 10 October
Review: Rod Dungate, 16 May 2006-05-17
Clear, energetic, but with no emotional pull
This is a very clear production; and it’s one in which the second half (all that comes after the funeral orations) doesn’t leave you feeling you should have left after Mark Antony’s speech – a great strength in my book. This must, in great part, be due to the taut pace director, Sean Holmes, has encouraged. However, it’s also a production that leaves you oddly unmoved. We are able to follow the arguments as they fly back and forth, we can even add up the dots, but at the end of the day, we are left wondering why; we simply don’t care enough.
In the centre of the production are two absorbing performances from John Light (Brutus) and Finbar Lynch (Cassius). Not only do both actors have a strong sense of the journey their character must make, but also, you sense they have worked jointly to create a pair of characters that complement each other. The differences between them – age, temperament, style, even class – are incorporated into each characterisation. All the scenes between them are engrossing. Brutus’s early outbursts on the battlefield surprising, and as difficult for us to take as they are for Cassius to handle.
Ariyon Bakare (Mark Antony) is somewhat hampered by crutches – the result no doubt of an accident. I don’t know whether it’s this that holds him back, but he fails, convincingly to inhabit the role. He always seems at arms length from it and his handling of the verse is sometimes perverse.
Sean Holmes has created a terrific party atmosphere for the opening, full of colour, music and great noise. Stephen Brimson Lewis and Kandis Cook (sets and costumes) use colour then black and white throughout to great effect. Holmes has also created a wholeness from the battle scenes that’s frequently lacking in this oddly shaped play. This speaks volumes for the acting company. If only Holmes had found his way to the play’s heart as well as its head.
Flavius: David Rubin.
Marullus: Ewen Cummiins.
Julius Caesar: James Hayes.
Casca: Joseph Alessi.
Calphurnia: Golda Rosheuvel.
Mark Antony: Ariyon Bakare.
Soothsayer: Luke Neal.
Brutus: John Light.
Cassius: Finbar Lynch.
Cicero: Ewen Cummins.
Lucius: Craig Gazey.
Trebonius: Rob Carroll.
Decius Brutus: Keith Osborn.
Cinna: Paul Barnhill.
Metellus Cimber: Chris Jarman.
Portia: Maria Gale.
Caius Ligarius: Ravi Aujla.
Caesar’s Servant: Allyson Brown.
Popilius: Edmund Kingsley.
Artemidorus: Nick Court.
Cinna the Poet: Edmund Kingsley.
Octavius Caesar: Nick Court.
Lepidus: Ewen Cummins.
Lucilius: Paul Barnhill.
Pindarus: David Rubin.
Titinus: Luke Neal.
Messala: Joseph Alessi.
Young Cato: Edmund Kingsley.
Directed by: Sean Holmes.
Set Designed by: Stephen Brimson Lewis.
Costumes Designed by: Kandis Cook.
Lighting Designed by: Paul Anderson.
Music Composed and Directed by: Adrian Lee.
Sound Designed by: Chris Branch and Tom Haines.
Additional Sound by: Jeremy Dunn.
Movement by: Michael Ashcroft.
Fights Directed by: Terry King.
Assistant Director: Poonam Brah.
Company Voice Work by: Charmian Gradwell and Lyn Darnley.
2006-05-17 20:23:33