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