Long before the name Caesar was best known as a tasty salad, and a form of baby delivery, the ancient Roman ruler was a real guy who met a nasty end, immortalized centuries later in William Shakespeare’s history and tragedy “Julius Caesar.”
The five-act, 1599 play is based on the life of the Roman general and statesman Caesar (100 BC-44 BC).
A solid, serious, well-acted, and more contemporary spin on the brutal, idealistic story of tyranny versus freedom (so relevant today) is told in the new Genesius Guild production at Lincoln Park, 1120 40th St., Rock Island.
In the tragedy, jealous conspirators convince Caesar’s friend Brutus to join their assassination plot against Caesar. To stop Caesar from gaining too much power, Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March (the middle of the month), according to a synopsis.
Mark Antony drives the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle. Brutus and his friend Cassius lose and kill themselves, leaving Antony to rule in Rome.
Director Alaina Pascarella has previously helmed Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII” with Prenzie Players, and a Genesius production of “Hamlet” in 2019. She felt it was important for the key roles of Antony and Cassius to be played by women – Kate Almquist and Kate Farence, respectively – who turn out to be the most cathartic, emotional and mesmerizing actors in this version.
“I thought it was very prescient for what we see going on in today’s politics and today’s world,” Pascarella said after Sunday’s 125-minute performance. “And also reflecting today’s world on the stage. Cassius and Antony are definitely foils to one another.”
A friend of Caesar, Antony first claims allegiance to Brutus and the conspirators after Caesar’s death, but after the funeral, he instead condemns Brutus as a traitor. Cassius doesn’t like the power Caesar wields and leads Brutus to believe that he must die.
“Cassius is someone who knows what the right thing to do is, but nobody listens hat she has to say,” Pascarella said. “It’s very prescient when we look at today’s political scene and really reflecting on our own politics, using these things in the past and see how cycles repeat themselves.”
In Caesar’s time, Rome is very divided, on the verge of another civil war (similar to America’s political polarizations today), the director said. “It was important for me to tell the story of what we see happening in our own political climate, through Shakespeare’s words.”
Caesar (really only seen in the first half), played by Brian Wellner as a near benevolent dictator, is power hungry, putting himself over his country.
Antony originally thought Brutus (a strong, conscientious and decent Andrew Bruning) was doing something for the good of the country, but he (or here, she) didn’t agree the means was correct. “Trying to preserve the republic was not wrong,” Pascarella said.
Cassius is radicalism in its purest form, while Antony is more tempered radicalism, wanting to work within the system to make change, she said.
Pascarella was in the Prenzie production of “Julius Caesar” about 10 years ago.
Why graffiti?
The new production features a lot of graffiti on the set, with mostly Latin phrases both for and against Caesar. There was graffiti in ancient Rome, and this is actually much milder as what would have been used then, Pascarella said.
“What I wanted to do here with the graffiti was to reflect this is a dangerous Rome,” she said.
Today, when anybody in U.S. politics talks, it’s deeply divided and no one from opposing parties can work together, Pascarella said.
“Julius Caesar” can teach us the dangers of political violence and the “dangers of not hearing the other side, and have the conversation – instead resorting to violence,” she said.
When it was first done in 1599, it was near the end of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, when there were factions fighting and affecting the people of England. People were jockeying for power to fill the void when she was gone (dead in 1603) and “Shakespeare was reflecting that, telling this story,” Pascarella said.
Elizabeth was succeeded on the British throne by King James VI of Scotland, her first cousin twice removed.
‘Sic semper tyrannis’
In the historical record, many conspirators of Caesar used the phrase “Sic semper tyrannis” (meaning “thus always to tyrants”), which some people attribute to Brutus during the assassination.
John Wilkes Boothwrote in his diary that he shouted “Sic semper tyrannis” after Abraham Lincolnon April 14, 1865, in part because of the association with the assassination of Caesar.
“It resonates across history in terms of this particular story,” Pascarella said. It’s notable Brutus does not utter the phrase when he stabs Caesar in the Shakespeare.
The tragedy shows the ambitious, uncaring politician is doing what is best for himself, not his country.
In the second half of the play, the ghost of Caesar has a brief conversation with Brutus, and at the end, Pascarella adds another ghost appearance as Brutus is dying, since the two men had such a close relationship.
“It felt very emotionally resonant for Brutus to see Caesar in those final moments because he says, ‘Caesar, now be still; I kill’d not thee with half so good a will’.”
It is a very profound moment in the excellent new production, whose other talented cast include Lena Slininger, Joe Sager, Dee Canfield, Rylie King, Charles Budan, Gryffyn Myers and Eden Myers.
$1.5M fundraising goal
In her introduction, Pascarella invited the audience to consider donating to a $1.5-million to rebuild the stage area, which has been used since Genesius debuted in its first 1957-58 season.
Concrete under the stage has been settling for several years, and if it continues unaddressed, they will not be able to build a new permanent stage. Genesius also wants to improve the structure around the audience to improve sound quality (it was often hard to hear several actors in this production, of course train horns don’t help), and creating permanent lighting.
“Classical theater is an important cultural aspect of the Quad Cities, and our organization is unique,” the Genesius program says, noting this is the only place in the nation offering annual performances of Greek tragedy in mask and modernized Greek comedy, and one of few places producing Shakespeare outdoors, all for free.
“Julius Caesar” will continue at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 29 and 30. All performances are free of charge, with donations gladly accepted.
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