dlyt

Last month - incidentally on the day before the Ides of March - I watched Julius Caesar.

It was actually the fourth time I've seen it, because it's my favourite Shakespeare play. But each time, it feels less like history and closer to reality, and that's kind of depressing. I went in thinking, maybe this will be the last time I feel up to it?

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Anyway, this production was by Bell Shakespeare at the Sydney Opera House.


Casting

Not the first time I've seen Brutus played by a female actor. (The character was genderswapped, rather than just cross-cast.)

I really loved the tender and emotional scenes between her and her wife Portia (who was played by a nonbinary actor, but whose character was not genderswapped). It was great to see same-sex relationship rep! But kind of sad to then realise it's all going to end in tears.

Lucius was also genderswapped.

Octavius was cross-cast but not genderswapped.


Staging

The set was simple and versatile: a courtyard with red walls and a concrete floor, with weeds sprouting from the cracks. Furniture was moved around from scene to scene: tables, couches, shade umbrellas, potted trees.


Costuming

The senators and conspirators wore very sharp white suits. Calphurnia and Portia wore gorgeous flowing white dresses. The ordinary people of Rome wore modern casualwear.


Intermission

Halfway through the play, when the conspirators have casually surrounded Caesar, and right when Casca raises his dagger to stab Caesar in the back, we cut to black. The curtain falls. Very dramatic choice of break!

When we return from intermission, the stage lights go up on a bloody scene. Everyone is frozen in tableau, but in the aftermath. Caesar's dead body on the floor. Bloodstained daggers held in bloodstained hands. And all the white suits, splattered in blood. (I guess that was the reason for that costuming choice!)

Very effective at highlighting the pivotal scene.


Speeches

Sometimes genderswapping characters is just really cool and gives more opportunities to talented performers. But I'm always interested when it also brings a new dimension to the story. When Mark Antony says, "Brutus is an honourable woman", I couldn't help but get vibes of all the times women in politics have been subtly (or blatantly) undercut by male rivals (or colleagues).

During the course of his speech, Mark Antony picked up the mic from its stand, I guess to indicate that this was shifting into deliberate performance. I wondered if he was actually going to do a mic drop at the end, but I guess that would have been a bit too much.


Miscellaneous

A favourite moment, that I don't think I've paid much attention to before: when Caesar tells the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come." And the soothsayer says, "Ay, Caesar; but not gone." Ooooh, burn.

Another favourite moment: the triumvirate are sitting at a table. Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar have their heads bent, working on notes and reports. Lepidus is stirring his cup of tea and clinking the spoon. The other two look up at him slowly. A hilarious way to illustrate the cracks in the alliance.


Thoughts

I used to be Team Antony, ride-or-die loyalty. I thought now I would be Team Brutus, fuck all tyrants. But the aftermath of the assassination, when the conspirators are joyfully telling each other how happy all the people will be at this news, while everyone is still drenched in blood - it feels appallingly illusory, born of horrifying violence.

From the program book:

If we do our job, we hope you are conflicted. Shakespeare is a political philosopher who creates a thought experiment from history, and his genius is to be able to lay out the events deliberately and clearly, yet we find no easy answers.

The theatre is a place where we can hold opposing ideas in our heads at the same time. We can appreciate the nobleness of Brutus and her thoughtfulness while lamenting her naive assumption of these qualities in others. I hope we feel some pity, even if we wish her honourable nature did not cloud reality.

We can be appalled by Antony's willingness to incite chaos while understanding his shock and grief at the death of his friend, and his single-minded determination. His willingness to risk it all is thrilling.

But the central question Brutus debates in soliloquy proves elusive: can one commit murder and retain any moral standing? Is there any such thing as an honorable assassination?

Maybe I will end up watching it again next time. Will there come a day when it feels more fictional and less relevant? Not so far.