And I say all that having the most ridiculous understudy note I've ever seen. I've copied it here for prosperity:-
"Due to the indisposition of James Gale the role of Cicero will be played by Chris Saul, Caesars servant by Joe Arkley, Lepidus by Patrick Romer and the roles of Claudio and Dardanius by Brian Doherty. At this performance the role of Lucillius normally played by David Rubin will be played by Gruffudd Glyn and the role of Young Cato by Tunji Kasim."
I mean that's a dangerously insane number of understudies if ever I've seen one (and a little confusing given that David Rubin was definitely on for the first half, though I don't remember seeing him for the second half). The RSC has a really superb understudy policy and this winter it's really showed, I've seen very few performances at the Roundhouse that didn't have an understudy but the quality of performance hasn't suffered. And with Caesar I was even a little worried that when I saw it on the 5th that it might have been this combination of understudies that suddenly gave it it's magic spark for me (as it turned out there were still a few understudies on the Saturday though not quite as many - this changing line up didn't affect my enjoyment at all, though I'd be hard pressed to decide which cast I preferred).
Partly this might be because I think this is possibly the closest they get to a real ensemble piece with the Shakespeare's they've put on (discounting Comedy of Errors) - nearly everyone I think gets their moment to shine and impress (though most of the girls woefully get very little to do - alas this is the flaw in cross casting productions). Anyway I love that ensemble feel, especially as I think there are excellent performances all round. It seems somewhat unfair, that said, to pick out any favourites - but it's hard to deny that Darrell Da Silva is really goose-bumpingly magnetic in this. I was also really impressed with Sam Troughton this time around, I'd enjoyed watching Brutus' journey when I first saw this but wasn't so certain about the acting choices - I remembered a lot of over the top wide eyed wonder. That seemed to have been stripped away this time for something much subtler and darker, making Brutus' journey much more fascinating (seriously it's one of my favourite things, we're shown him moving from the thing he commits to destroy - to being that thing - and we still, mostly, like him = so much love for Shakespeare's mind). I think he's benefited greatly from playing both Romeo and Arthur (both of which performances I was impressed by) - and that showed here clearly. I suspect as well that some of the other actors have similarly made great leaps and bounds with their work, though sadly they might not have had as good a chance to show it).
Also, I found myself really loving the staging this time round - which is a bit of an odd one for me, because that was definitely one of the things I really had an issue with when I originally saw it - particularly the use of the projections. I still think the projected crowd add very little to the play and in places are annoyingly distracting from what's happening on the stage - there's an impossibility in matching exactly the crowd with the speeches which make them somewhat ridiculous, plus the stylised repetitive images become oddly hypnotic, though not in any rewarding sense. But I did find myself liking the upper part of the projected images, the scene setting ones despite the occasional naff graphic. I particularly loved the last image used as Brutus was carried off - I suspect it was Les Conquerants by Pierre Fritel (which is also in the programme) - but it actually reminded me mostly of the 1920s recreation of the funeral procession performed at the Royal Tombs of Ur, which for me at least gave a different feel to it - ideas of Brutus as monarchy and mourned. It was very poignant. Plus there were other elements to the staging I just simply loved - the earthy almost rusty feel of the stage, the way you could see soldiers patrolling through the screens at the back and I'm always a sucker for petals falling from the sky - the bloody red ones being no exception.
Likewise the costumes had grown on me - I liked the simpleness and clean lines and the fact they've managed to give togas something of the feel of both suits and armour. Plus I loved how it contrasted with the rich vibrancy of the outfits around Caesar and the later animalistic style of the soldier's costumes. The focus on the descent of mankind to beastiality was definitely one of those things making me happy in this production, but more on that below. But I was still a little distracted and offput by some of it - Oliver Ryan is wearing kulottes and looks like he's about to form an Abba tribute band, I'm not even sure what to make of that (though thankfully given that he puts in a superb, very memorable, performance as Casca - it's easy to very quickly look past that) - and the "skin-like" body suits still make the actors look weirdly wrinkly. Plus whilst up close the detail in the costumes was beautiful, it had some odd affects from a distance and I can't be the only one who thought Octavius was wearing leopard print.
Perhaps though these oddities in the costume added to a slightly off-kilter feel that the play had for me, I never felt fully like I could settle into it, let it wash over me - because everytime I started to something would twist me off in another way - whether it was the way the ghosts appeared or the sound design or the lighting (Some excellent storm work here as well) or the excellent mournful horns (I also want to just mention how much I loved that the musicians got spotlights :D) - all these things kept me on edge and it made it feel genuinely dangerous. Plus I loved that the supernatural elements - the dreams, the auguries, the visions - were given equal weight to the political machinations.
Though the political machinations were definitely central - I suspect if I told people that a large chunk of this play is a drawn out political debate (and a very current and important one at the time Shakespeare was writing (I highly recommend reading 1599 by James Shapiro for anyone interested) - I'd have a great deal more trouble finding people to go with me. But what that ignores is that the central argument moments of the debate are by far the most thrilling in the whole play - from the moment of Caesar's death to the death of Cinna the Poet (OMG what are you doing to Patrick Romer you fiends! As it turns out people pretending to hurt Mr Romer makes me unreasonably upset) - this production is truly, truly enthralling. Part of the reason I like it so much is that as much as this is in the play about two opposing political factions - this production highlights that it is also very much a fight between human ideology and human baseness. The best and worst of ourselves. And whilst it's a fight in which Brutus represents to some extent the former and Antony appeals to the latter, it's also a fight which we get to witness taking place inside Brutus. He, most of all the conspirators, succumbs to violent butchery and for the second half we see him fighting against those two duelling aspects of himself. It gives us a point of interest to the later scenes, which inevitably suffer from having to compete with the end of the first half.
It's also an idea which is beautifully threaded throughout the production - from the snarling wolf fight at the beginning (I love the echo of this in the fighting later), to the repeated wolf images throughout, to the use of the lupercalia and the way it mixes passion, lust and violence to remind us how often these things are lurking just below the surface. I particularly the way these ideas are used as well in the scene between Brutus and Portia (an excellent performance by Hannah Young as well). Throughout we're reminded that deep down we can be little more than animals. I think as well the way they've done the fighting in these scenes at the end is great - there's nothing really beautiful about it - it's exhausted and desperate and the men are just hacking at each other as brutally as possibly.
I love it when productions get both my mind and my emotions throbbing - and this did that for me (I wasn't even distracted my all the lovely flesh on display... mostly ;) ).
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