JULIUS CAESAR. To 7 July.
London/Tour
JULIUS CAESAR
by William Shakespeare
Barbican Theatre To 14 May 2005 then tour
Runs 3hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 0845 120 7554
www.barbican.org.uk (reduced booking fee online)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 April
Epic dimensions such as the stage rarely contains these days; a production with bold brushstrokes rather than finer shadings.This mass (100+)-cast Caesar isn't the first to hit these shores in modern times; Peter Stein's similarly grand production played at Edinburgh airport during a 1990s Festival. Deborah Warner's account needs its theatrical setting. Under Jean Kalman's lighting the wide Barbican space becomes a public space or acquires a mellow domestic atmosphere.
The ordered steps running across are surrounded by crash-barriers restraining the crowd that hails Caesar. During the speeches following Caesar's assassination the crowd seeps through, milling around to be swayed by Mark Antony's oratory. It's the start of an upheaval redesignating and disordering both performing space and the society it shows.
At the end of act one Cinna the Poet, murdered by an angry mob, lies half in view under the curtain. After the interval the new rulers plan coldly in front of this curtain, which rises to reveal a vast, anonymous expanse, coldly lit. The battles for power are fought in something like a giant warehouse, its constricted rear-stage opening suggesting the vast territories at stake are guarded like some guilty secret.
Warner has surprise-cast her chief conspirators. Physically and in acting style Anton Lesser is made for the lean, hungry-looking Cassius, tight-wired and unpredictable, Simon Russell Beale for the thoughtful, conscientious Brutus. The reverse is half successful, Lesser giving Brutus a stripped-down energy, while Russell Beale, for all his incidental insights into Cassius' thought processes, for once seems to be exercising mannerisms of constant consideration and surprise divisions of phrasing.
Ralph Fiennes' Mark Antony develops naturally from irresponsible playboy to ruthless ruler, while John Shrapnel's fine Caesar is bluff and self-assured, his self-image enforcing his will on Rome. Fiona Shaw works to make Portia a big enough role for her, but becomes excessive a limp, a trip, an inability to mention her thigh wound without hiking up her skirt, as if her husband might have forgotten.
It points to the production's limitations. On the grand scale it works well, at least to the interval. What's missing are many of the character shadings which Shakespeare and the Elizabethan public playhouse were able to portray amid larger-scale events.
Flavius/Lepidus: David Collings
Carpenter/Strato: Anthony Mark Barrow
Marullus/Lucilius: Daniel Weyman
Cobbler/Clitus: Jim Hooper
Julius Caesar: John Shrapnel
Casca: Struan Rodger
Mark Antony: Ralph Fiennes
Soothsayer/Claudius: Tim Potter
Marcus Brutus: Anton Lesser
Caius Cassius: Simon Russell Beale
Cicero: Clifford Rose
Cinna/2nd Poet/Volumnius: Paul Shearer
Lucius: James Anthony Pearson
Decius Brutus: John Kane
Metellus Cimber/Dardanius: Michael Gardiner
Trebonius/titinius: Chris Jarman
Portia: Fiona Shaw
Caius Ligarius: Sean Baker
Caesar's Servant/Artemidorus/Messala: Robert Demeger
Calphurnia: Ginny Holder
Publius: Jimmy Gardner
Popilius Lena: David Glover
Mark Antony's Servant/Varro: Alex McIntosh
Octavius Caesar's Servant/Pindarus: Rohan Siva
Citizen/Young Cato: Joseph Kennedy
Citizen/Messenger: Celia Meiras
Cinna the Poet: Leo Wringer
Octavius Caesar: Oliver Kieran-Jones
Chorus: Richard Alleman, Ashley Carr, Andrew Carter, David Case, Michael Cotton, Seb Craig, Ruben Crow, Derek Davy, Stephen Eliot-McDonald, Clive Fryde, Mike Goodenough, Max Haverkamp, Marcus Heath, Margaret Hilder, Roland john-Leopoldie, Mark Kane, Christopher Kelham, Leigh Kelly, Daniel Kobbina, Ryozo Kohira, A nthony Ekundayo Lennon, Andre Lillis, Gary Mackay, Maurizio Molino, Ralph Mondi, Eleanor Montgomery, Alan Mooney, Guy More, Franchine Mulrooney, fidel Nanton, Stephen O'Toole, Carl Patrick, Guy Picot, Liam Reilly, Simon Rhodes, Malcolm Rogers, Daud Shah, Davina Silver, Chris Streeks, Neil Suarez
Supernumaries Chorus: Livia Arditti, Pierre Becker, Sean Paul Browne, Anne Clements, Fotina Georganda, Nic Myers, Ben Neadle, Rebecca Peyton, Mark Spillane, Elizabeth Stuart
Community Chorus: David Ames, Ricci Beevas, Winston Bennett, Jennifer Bernard, Chris Cadman, Rav Casley Gera, Roger Clark, Barry Clarke, Glen Connor, Alex Cooper, John Couzens, Michael De-Sioye, Robert Digby, Justin Donaldson, Maude Estwick, Karl Fredericksson, Erdogan Gilgil
Laura Glover, Antony Hampton, Dean Harper, Mystique Holloway, Jane Inglese, Tarek Iskander, Ivana Jurcevic, Joe Kelly, Ilona-Rise Kunimyelo, Mick Martello9tto, Jaqueline Michelle, Tholi Miya, Andy Morris, Mark Morris, Sheila Murphy, Jessica Nyantakyi, Nigel Oatway, Abukar Osman, Andres Palacios Serna, Luis Pessoa, Chantal Pierre-Packer, Michael Roberts-Noeli, Estelle Russell, Megumi Saito, Hakan Silahsizoglu, Austin Spangler-downing, Freddie Still, Patrick ullivan, Benedict Theocleous, Angel Thomas, Keith Wait, Shantelle Walker, Hazel Watson, Nick Welch, Alex Widdup, Barry Wilson
Director: Deborah Warner
Designer/Video: Tom Pye
Lighting: Jean Kalman
Sound: Christopher Shutt
Music: Mel Mercier
Projection: Dick Straker for Mesmer
Costume: Chloe Oblensky
Movement: Joyce Henderson
Voice: Patsy Rodenburg
Assistant directors: William Oldroyd, Douglas Rintoul
Associate Lighting Designer: Mike Gunning
2005-05-02 19:52:33