JULIUS CAESAR at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★

“Overall, this is an exciting if imperfect production”

Icarus Theatre’s new production of this Shakesperean historical tragedy brings the story of conspiracy and the murder of Rome’s would-be first emperor into a dystopian near future, where technology has advanced further that we can imagine and is omnipresent in the fabric of the city and our lives.

The play opens with Marullus (Angus Dunican) presenting a diatribe against Caesar (Will Travis) projected onto one of the three movable and openable cylinders that form the stage. His delivery is reminiscent of a YouTube live stream with comments from viewers appearing below his head and is clearly an allusion towards the media climate of the present day, in which social media moulds politics. In this way, the production immediately foregrounds its innovative use of technology, including multiple levels of projection, messages being delivered directly to characters, as via instant messaging apps, as well as surtitles styled like chat boxes that rearrange themselves to follow the actors’ position on stage. Political language in the style of online discourse (#notmyemperor) is projected onto the background, demonstrative of the opinions of the population of Rome to the events happening at the highest levels of society. The surtitles are an excellent addition and improve the accessibility of a work that adheres closely to Shakespeare’s beautiful, if knotty, verse. Their inclusion also creates a production that is equally open to deaf and hearing audiences, a key aim of Icarus Theatre, which is to be commended.

Other choices around the use of technology are less effective, however. The decision to have Caesar appear only as a Big Brother-style projection, including in the moment of his death, serves to highlight the way he has elevated himself above the Roman people, but makes less sense when he is visited in his home – if he were so clearly aloof with everyone, would the rabble-rousing speech made by Mark Antony (James Heatlie) in the wake of his death have had the same impact? Nevertheless, the creative team including director Max Lewendel, projection designer Will Monks, and creative captioning consultant Samantha Baines deserve a lot of credit for this strikingly new production.

The costumes have a retro-sci-fi feel, with long hair, dark eye makeup, and baggy, almost punky clothes, which some will love. The casting also breaks with tradition: many of Shakespeare’s male characters are played by women including Brutus (Rowan Winter), Trebonius (Eleanor Crosswell), and Caius Ligarius (Yvonne Grundy), and there are frequent scenes of queer intimacy, challenging traditional notions of heteronormativity.

The main cast of eleven, with many multi-rolling, is good and standouts performers include Michael Skellern as a sensitive and jealous Cassius, James Heatlie as the loyal and persuasive Mark Antony, and Gabrielle Sheppard as Casca and Portia, Brutus’s wife – a role to which she brings great emotional resonance while the couple discuss Brutus’s withdrawal from their relationship.

Overall, this is an exciting if imperfect production. The use of technology, especially the surtitles to improve accessibility, as well as the challenges to traditional ideas of gender and sexuality is to be lauded. However, at times the production techniques prove to be somewhat distracting. It could be also argued that the text of the play itself already contains the necessary material to assess today’s political climate – from gifted orators riling up the crowds to the machinations of an elite far removed the general population – without the gestures towards an enhanced social media-like commentar

JULIUS CAESAR at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 13th September 2024

by Rob Tomlinson

Photography by Adrian Warner

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues

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JULIUS CAESAR

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★★★★

“If this site, lacks the in-your-face flash of Disneyworld, it more than makes up for it in the energy and commitment of its large and diverse cast”

Dedicated Whovians are in for a treat. The BBC has found a site, allegedly hidden around 1942 but only recently rediscovered, that offers an exciting adventure travelling through time and space with at least some of your favourite characters from the iconic television show. I say “at least some” because this elaborately staged production not only leads the audience through a series of well designed sets, but divides them into small groups, and smaller sets, for exclusive mini adventures. The audience is reunited twice — for a much appreciated break during the middle of the show (complete with your drink of choice and live music) — and at the end of the show for the apocalyptic breakdown and grand finale. If this site, cleverly concealed in a quiet mews just down the road from Bond Street tube, lacks the in-your-face flash of Disneyworld, it more than makes up for it in the energy and commitment of its large and diverse cast. Both “alien” and “human.”

I’d like to tell you more, but the Doctor threatened me (very nicely, of course) with a total mindwipe if I said anything about the plot. “The first rule of Time Fracture is….” — so I hope, prospective intrepid time traveller, that you’ll forgive me.

I can say that for me (and my companion) this was a great way to spend an evening in London. Social distancing seems less noticeable when the audience is constantly on the move and involved in the action. There was plenty of recognizable timey-wimey stuff going on for Doctor Who fans, and if it was a bit shouty-wouty — well, there was a lot going on all over the place, and with different groups of people. The actors managed this remarkably well, considering that they were costumed from head to foot (often unrecognizably so) in small spaces on the hottest and most humid evening in London this year. They also had to be very deft with the improvised conversations, and to deal with audience members who tried to change the plot on them, or claimed to be at least one thousand years old. In some ways Doctor Who: Time Fracture will feel a bit like the haunted house exhibits for Hallow’een. In this show, however, the sets and costumes are way more cool, and yes, scarier in at least one instance. No, I’m not going to tell you. Spoilers!

Doctor Who: Time Fracture would be a good choice of event for a blind date or even a first date. You won’t be able to talk to each other with all the noise and excitement going on, but by the end of the evening, you will know if your prospective is Time Lord material — or just a mere mortal destined to be jettisoned straight back into the universe’s dating pool.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Mark Senior

JULIUS CAESAR at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★

“Overall, this is an exciting if imperfect production”

JULIUS CAESAR at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 13th September 2024

by Rob Tomlinson

Photography by Adrian Warner

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues

JULIUS CAESAR

JULIUS CAESAR

Unit HQ

Reviewed – 16th June 2021

★★★★

“If this site, lacks the in-your-face flash of Disneyworld, it more than makes up for it in the energy and commitment of its large and diverse cast”

I’d like to tell you more, but the Doctor threatened me (very nicely, of course) with a total mindwipe if I said anything about the plot. “The first rule of Time Fracture is….” — so I hope, prospective intrepid time traveller, that you’ll forgive me.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Mark Senior

Doctor Who – Time Fracture

Unit HQ until April 2022

Reviewed this year by Dominica: