Over the years, I occasionally saw another Shakespearean play performed. When they really came alive for me was when I listened to the Great Courses taught by Peter Saccio. Since then learning more about the plays and their interpretations and subtexts has become very important to me. I have even seen Sir Antony Sher in the role of Falstaff at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. I see nearly every performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company and volunteer there as well.
Last month, the Seattle Shakespeare Company produced Julius Caesar and while preparing for a trip to visit family I discovered that Niagara University Theatre would be performing Julius Caesar as well. Two nights ago, I attended a performance at NU. It was very much worth the trip!
Sometimes shallowly politicized in this wacky political year, Julius Caesar is actually a cold, hard look at the reality behind the scenes in political intrigues...and a warning that choosing the wrong course of action based on a flawed analysis can produce devastating consequences. Those unintended consequences can include creating the very nightmare scenario that was meant to be avoided!
The set design was clean and stark, a number of cold stone columns and thrones, rearranged during scene changes to create different environments. Several masked performers slouched around the theater and watched coldly before the start of the play.
(Here the crew begins intermission cleanup. There WAS blood, though not at Titus Andronicus levels)
The cast as a whole was well-rehearsed and tuned into what was happening in the play, what their characters' motivations were. Casting was often against written gender, with a male Calpurnia and female Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Marcus Brutus and Marcus Antonius (Marc Antony). In fact, all of the conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar except for Gaius Cassius Longinus (Cassius) were women. And the combat scenes were on point.
While all of the performers did great work, my favorites were the actors in the roles of Cassius, Brutus and Marc Antony. Johnny Barden's Cassius WAS lean, hungry and dangerous. Kayla McSorley's Brutus was a Roman stoic, with a fine mind and poor political instincts. Rachael Buchanan was a *terrific* Brutus: happy under Julius Caesar, coldly furious when initially confronting Caesar's killers and manipulating the mob, casually choosing the list of people who the triumvirs would execute. I can easily imaging her playing a key role in the Upstart Crow Collective's all-female Henry VI/Richard III cycle.
All in all, this was a wonderful performance and it was a treat to be sitting in the Niagara University Theatre once more. And to see the campus again...
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Written By: William Shakespeare
Directed By: Steve Braddock
Sets By: David Dwyer
Costumes By: Maureen Stevens
CAST MEMBERS
Sonia Angeli (Portia/ Lucilius)
Johnny J. Barden IV (Cassius)
Rachael Buchanan (Antony)
Briegette Bullock (Trebonius/ Octavius)
Krista Cantrell (Cinna/ Strato)
Marissa DelVecchio (Decius/ Clitus)
Nicholas Edwards (Metellus Cimber/ Volumnius)
Kalee George (Casca/ Titinius)
Mersedez Hoover (Caesar)
Kayla McSorley (Brutus)
Kevin Trala (Artemidorus/ Messala)
Elijah Vasquez (Soothsayer/ Pindarus)
Christian Webster (Calpurnia/ Soldier)
Russell Wilson (Lucius)
