Julius Caesar (2018)

Back when this first aired in cinemas, I had a plan to see it. I was really excited, because I love Ben Whishaw and Richard II taught me that he’s an actor who can perform beautifully. But the closest theater showing it was 60 miles away, and a massive snowstorm hit on the one Saturday it was playing, so I missed it. But that’s the beauty of National Theatre Live having their own streaming service now. I don’t need to be limited to one particular day/time, I don’t need to drive for over an hour, and I don’t need to depend on the weather. It’s just there for when I want to see it!

Caesar is beloved by the people, but he’s poised to become a tyrant. One of his senators, Cassius, conspires to assassinate Caesar before that can happen, and she draws many others into the plot. She especially courts Caesar’s friend Brutus, who wrestles between loyalty to his friend and his duty to protect his country.

I’ll speak a little to the production on the whole, then move on to the acting, which is the focal point of most Shakespeare productions. Though filmed for National Theatre Live, this is an instance where the play was actually mounted at a different London theatre: the Bridge, which also put on the excellent production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that I reviewed a while back. As with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s performed in the round with audience members standing on the floor around the raised-up stage. The style is contemporary, which is always a little bit tricky when you get into the history plays—does it make sense that the conspirators could bring guns into the Senate without being caught? Does it even make sense that the politicians would be doing the killing themselves? Probably not, but that’s just par for the course when you’re presenting a Shakespeare play in this manner: go for a modern-looking semi-police state and trust that the audience will stick with it even if it veers from contemporary reality.

Onto the performances! As you probably noted from the plot summary, Cassius is a woman in this production, played by Michelle Fairley, a.k.a. Catelyn Stark. She brings her usual ferocity to the role but moderated, simmering under the seductive manipulation that Cassius more commonly employs. Ben Whishaw is of course excellent as Brutus, a mild-mannered pubic figure who shies away from being at the center of plot but who is increasingly pulled in to what Cassius is urging him toward. David Morrissey, who I still remember best from State of Play, is effective as Marc Antony. The play also features Adjoh Andoh (Martha’s mom from Doctor Who) as Casca, and Kit Young (Jesper!!) as Octavius. Side note: Young was in the Bridge’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well, playing Lysander, so that’s fun. Also, he plays a couple other minor roles in addition to Octavius here, appearing variously as a Roman citizen and one of Caesar’s guards. Obviously, this is something that plays do all the time, particularly big productions of Shakespeare plays, but it’s not often that I specifically recognize one of those ensemble members playing multiple small roles. I enjoy seeing the work Young does to feel like three different characters, even though all of them have limited stage time.

Warnings

Violence and strong thematic elements.