{"id":1551,"date":"2018-02-05T10:33:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1551"},"modified":"2018-02-05T10:37:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:37:33","slug":"would-you-vote-for-julius-caesar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2018\/02\/would-you-vote-for-julius-caesar.html","title":{"rendered":"Would you vote for Julius Caesar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Be honest \u2013 would you vote for any of these dodgy, blundering political contenders? The talking point around Nicholas Hytner\u2019s production of Julius Caesar<\/em><\/a> has been that many of us get to swarm around the action, gawping at the Roman elite, swayed by their rhetoric and shoved by security.<\/p>\n

First of all we\u2019re whooping at Caesar\u2019s rally (there\u2019s beer! I bought a badge!), then eavesdrop as Cassius and Brutus tiptoe around conspiracy over a carafe of red. We stare as Brutus edges towards the spotlight, weighed down by reading material and a wife he can\u2019t protect from self-harm. We see assassination at close range, are pushed aside by processions and crowd round the platforms that rise from the floor. Pulsing towards each new rush of dramatic interest, we\u2019re the definition of fickle, the very incarnation of the popular will.<\/p>\n

But Hytner and his propulsive cast strip away the shine on leadership. Proximity reveals matey blowhards and fretful policy wonks, showmen and charmless strategists. No politician is a hero to such adjacent eyeballs. We may glimpse Ben Whishaw\u2019s integrity as Brutus, but also his political naivety. We see him lecture rather than rouse the crowd, wagging his tortoiseshell specs. We notice him pull handwash from his pocket after battle, then grasp a telling novel for the insomniac night: Bulgakov\u2019s The White Guard<\/em>, with its central characters, like Brutus, stuck on the losing side of a civil war.<\/p>\n

You might feel for him, but I don\u2019t know if you\u2019d vote for him. Or for Michelle Fairley\u2019s worn Cassius, a sharp strategist who can\u2019t seal the arguments. Or David Calder and David Morrisey, giving Caesar and Mark Antony a beery expansiveness that doesn\u2019t bear close scrutiny. The better the performances, the worse the choices:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ben Whishaw as Brutus. Photo: Manuel Harlan<\/p><\/div>\n

Julius Caesar<\/strong> (David Calder)
\nCampaign slogan<\/strong> Do this!
\nNever without<\/strong> baseball cap, oxygen mask, trophy wife
\nVote for him if<\/strong> you don\u2019t care that he makes no sense
\nDon\u2019t vote for him if<\/strong> you don\u2019t actually like autocrats<\/p>\n

Brutus<\/strong> (Ben Whishaw)
\nCampaign slogan<\/strong> It\u2019s complicated
\nNever without<\/strong> tortoiseshell glasses, paperbacks, antibac handwash
\nVote for him if<\/strong> you like policies that come with a reading list
\nDon\u2019t vote for him if<\/strong> you value practicality over purity<\/p>\n

Cassius<\/strong> (Michelle Fairley)
\nCampaign slogan<\/strong> Death to tyrants
\nNever without<\/strong> frown, handbag, gun
\nVote for her if<\/strong> you value reason above relatability
\nDon\u2019t vote for her if<\/strong> you don\u2019t like nasty women. Or, you know, women<\/p>\n

Mark Antony<\/strong> (David Morrissey)
\nCampaign slogan<\/strong> Wanna hear Caesar\u2019s will?
\nNever without<\/strong> personalised tracksuit, conditioner, copies of Caesar\u2019s will
\nVote for him if<\/strong> you see the bloke, not the bruiser
\nDon\u2019t vote for him if<\/strong> you don\u2019t believe a word of it<\/p>\n

Casca <\/strong>(Adjoa Andoh)
\nCampaign slogan<\/strong> It\u2019s all Greek to me
\nNever without<\/strong> well-cut coat, well-cut sarcasm, gun
\nVote for her if<\/strong> you prefer puns to policy
\nDon\u2019t vote for her if<\/strong> you\u2019re worried about who fires the first shot<\/p>\n

Octavius <\/strong>(Kit Young)
\nCampaign slogan<\/strong>\u00a0New Caesar
\nNever without<\/strong> battle plan, poker face
\nVote for him if<\/strong> you like the winning side
\nDon\u2019t vote for him if<\/strong> you really really don\u2019t like autocrats<\/p>\n

Hytner frames Julius Caesar<\/em> like a political thriller \u2013 if it\u2019s also a tragedy, then it\u2019s our tragedy. We need new models of leadership in a world where strong is often stupid, or completely unscrupulous; where nuanced looks pale at the polls. This sharp show is hardly encouraging.<\/p>\n

Follow David on Twitter @mrdavidjays<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Be honest \u2013 would you vote for any of these dodgy, blundering political contenders? The talking point around Nicholas Hytner\u2019s production of Julius Caesar has been that many of us get to swarm around the action, gawping at the Roman elite, swayed by their rhetoric and shoved by security. First of all we\u2019re whooping at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[489,32,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bridge-theatre","9":"tag-shakespeare","10":"tag-theatre","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1556,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions\/1556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}