Julius Caesar

On a night when nature imitated art, a steady drizzle augmented the atmospheric lighting effects (lightning) and sound effects (thunder) to lend an authentic feel to the stormy setting of Julius Caesar, now running at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Wisely averting any forced metaphors between the declining Roman Empire and our own (the parallels being so painfully obvious on a daily basis), director Cynthia Croot simply cross-fertilizes the classic setting with the modern technological elements of David M. Barber's multi-purpose set and Anne Murphy's timeless costumes and lets us draw our own conclusions, which are likely to be as ambivalent as the playwright himself.

(L to R) Charles Gamble as Decius, Karen Slack as Cassius, Bob Buckley as Julius Caesar, Sean Tarrant as Caska, and Kyle Haden as Brutus Photo: Casey A. Cass, CU Photo Dept.

For lack of any historical parallels, Stratfordians (those who believe in the popular legend of the barely literate glovemaker's son) are left to speculate about the vague lessons for Queen Elizabeth in Julius Caesar, but for "William Shake-speare" (one of the pen names of Edward de Vere, a one-time Catholic sympathizer), the parallels between the French Henri, Duke of Guise (called "Caesar" by the French Catholic Party), and the Roman emperor are not only startling—particularly their stabbings by committee—but it is these parallels which are emphasized in the play, while the dissimilarities are ignored, playing up the martyr angle.

Top to bottom: Richard Thieriot as Mark Antony and Bob Buckley as Julius Caesar Photo: Casey A. Cass, CU Photo Dept.

It's also worth noting that, after having been reworked by the author, the play possesses a tone of grey moderation not present in the younger de Vere's black and white moral universe, with Brutus and his associates perhaps the most sympathetic villains in the canon—though as an aristocrat, de Vere shows no favoritism to the democratic elements either, clearly depicting the vagaries of mob mentality. Finally, it's worth noting, as is so often the case, that the timing of the parallel events and the drafting of the play do not work with the traditional Stratfordian timeline, which places it 10 years after Guise's murder and de Vere's early versions, rendering it no longer topical.

(L to R) Kyle Haden as Brutus and Bob Buckley as Strato. Photo: Casey A. Cass, CU Photo Dept.

Croot's casting and the performances of her principals reflect the even-handedness of the book, with Kyle Haden's Brutus and Richard Thieriot's Mark Anthony claiming equally high moral ground, while luxuriating in some of the finest monologues ever written. Bob Buckley's Caesar tantalizingly straddles the fence between generous citizen and ambitious ruler, while the clever cross-gender casting of Karen Slack as Cassius pays dividends by infusing his/her already dramatically charged arguments with sexual undertones. Strong supporting performances throughout provide the depth required to support the playwright's grandiose vision.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's Julius Caesar runs in repertory with All's Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, The Servant of Two Masters, and Around the World in 80 Days through August 16th. 303-492-0554.

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