William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar – Basement Theatre: July 22-26 (13th Floor Theatre Review)
William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar sometimes seems like it has a cast of thousands. Last time we saw it in Auckland it had at least twenty. Last night, at the Basement Theatre with two actors and one effective sound and lighting manager, it had a cast of two. It was remarkable.
“We love difficulty,” actor Elisa Jones says. She and her other stage partner Marcus Jones clearly embrace it.
The reasons for the challenge are many, but here’s at least two. The first is written clearly on the wall among the political graffiti: revenue for theatrical production is miserable; funding is risible; and the hourly rate for all involved is laughable. (So think on that when you buy your pay-what-you-like ticket.)
The second reason is the challenge itself. “Are we being ridiculous?” they asked themselves when the unlikely project was germinating in the mind of director Khalil Qualis. “And the answer might be yes, admits Eliza Jones (who plays at least seven characters by my count, and suggests several others), “but ridiculous in a really cool way.” It is cool, and it is done straight, so even a purist couldn’t grumble.
Pruning the cast of course also means pruning lines, eliminating crowd scenes, and curtailing much of the action. And pitched battles become chess games—with the unlikely result of deaths all round at a checkmate.
Does it work? Well, I once saw The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) delivered by The Reduced Shakespeare Company in 60 minutes. So by that standard, pruning a bit of JC is child’s work. And the Pop-Up Globe gave us the play in an all-woman production (Sheena Irving giving us a stunning Brutus balancing Alison Bruce’s powerful Cassius), so there’s no problem changing a Caesar’s gender.
And Jones and Morgan do extraordinarily well. The play’s pivot, Mark Antony’s well-known oration over Caesar’s grave (“Friends, Roman’s. countrymen, lend me your ears …”) is delivered tellingly by Jones. That has to work, and it does. We believe her. And her short career as the dictator is conveyed with gravity. Not all the other several characters are as effective.
Morgan has the advantage of playing only two, but it is they who drive the story forward. He struggles a little with his Cassius, who seems a smidgen too simpering. His Brutus is the main event.
It helps to know the story already, if you don’t: republican (small ‘r’) conspirators fear the coming of a dictator; conspirators kill would-be dictator to return Rome to its republican roots (they hope); but with the scab ripped off, violence erupts, conspirators fall, and a new dictator is proclaimed. Meet the new boss …
If there are resonances to contemporary themes confronting us, I sense these are intentional.
I do feel that we lack some physicality that the play’s violence cries out for. An emperor is murdered, a civil war is played out, and yet the largest disturbance experienced on stage is the rumbling sound design. A reduced cast needn’t mean reduced impact.
This is an ambitious production nonetheless, and it succeeds. The team is touring New Zealand with it before heading to Philippi Australia to do battle there.
I wish them well.
Theatre Peter
Julius Caesar by JMO Theatrics is on at the Basement Theatre until 26 July.
Tickets here.
