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Julius Caesar in the 21st Century
http://www.wirenh.com/Stage/Stage_-_general/Shakespeare_enters_the_21st_century_200906103633.html
This one caught my eye for a number of reasons:
* It’s relatively local (Maine) so I have a shot at getting to see one of their productions.
* One of Shakespeare’s few historically factual plays, “Caesar” is based on the Roman leader’s assassination by his Senate. (Is that true? I suppose ‘factual’ is what makes the point, there.)
* “This play may be the single most brilliantly executed and relevant performance I’ve seen in the last six years.”
The reviewer seems a little too pre-occupied with the political climate for me. Both Brutus and Portia are played by women, which is fine, but the fact that nobody added any lesbian references, showing that it is “just a marriage”, is somehow a “poke at the topical issue” of gay marriage? No, no more so than making Caesar also a woman is somehow necessarily a Hillary Clinton reference.
1 comment:
If I had the opportunity to see a Caesar that drew rave reviews, I'd do it. I love the play, but it almost always disappoints me on stage--comes over as stiff, cold and distant. It may be the opposite of all the "minor" plays, about which people are forever saying, "it doesn't seem like much on the page, but wait until you see it acted--it really comes alive!" Julius Caesar reads briliantly, and performs flat, nineteen times out of twenty. If you've got access to a vibrant, powerful production, you shouldn't miss it.
Go! Maine's just down the road.
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