Power Play

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

State Theatre Company

Playhouse, February, 1991.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Of all of Shakespeare’s work, Julius Caesar seems to most invite the intervention of modern sensibilities. There is no way that the text can be left to tell itself (if such a thing were ever possible in the theatre).It presents such a spectrum of political shenanigans that any  production has to make choices straight off – whether to favour the Brutus team or …

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1991

The State Theatre Company opens its 1991 season next Tuesday night with Julius Caesar. Murray Bramwell talks about the production with director, Simon Phillips and actors, Carmel McGlone and Hugo Weaving.

Although written in 1599, straight after Henry V, Julius Caesar has little of the historical and moral certainty of Henry. Instead, it is an examination of the perils and complications of power. Shakespeare’s audience, well used to cautionary tales from history, would have recognised the pertinence of the …

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