first night review: julius caesar @ the Lupin Theater, part of the new orleans shakespeare festival at tulane

Power players: The ensemble cast of Julius Caesar (photo by Cat Landrum)

​Sometimes it's hard to be a Roman: Julius Caesar @ The Lupin Theater
Review by Paul Oswell

I doubt that unseasonably violent storms or spontaneously combusting men were witnessed on the night that the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival chose to stage this particular play, but you could be forgiven for believing it to be a portentous decision. Just a week before opening night, the Supreme Court declared the possibility of king-like immunity for future Presidents, a development that is strikingly on the nose given the Trumpian themes of the opening act.

We meet Caesar (played by Silas Cooper) in his pomp, on the cusp of regal authority thanks to a rising tide of plebian devotion. Two close associates, Cassius (Erin Cessna) and Brutus (Wendy Miklovic), are beginning to see Caesar as weak due to his seizures and ailments, and they fear that ascension to the crown will spell the end of the Republic. High ranking members of a political organization looking to replace a physically flawed but well-liked figurehead? Seems like Joe Biden should also brush up on his classics.

Wild weather, fiery omens and his wife’s nightmares alert Caesar to possible tragedy, while a lethal conspiracy gains traction among the political class in the dead of night. Even though the morning brings the Ides of March, JC does very much not beware them. At first, he tells the Senate that he will not attend that day, refusing to give a reason, with the Nixonian rhetoric of, “The cause is in my will.” When the president does it, that means it is not illegal. 

His hubris eventually has him change his mind and attend court, and there he is gleefully celebrated with cake and fine wine. I’m just kidding. As we all know, he is instead brutally murdered, stabbed repeatedly by almost everyone he trusted. His one true ally, Mark Antony (James Bartelle), witnesses the bloody aftermath, superficially sanctioning the assassination but as the mob departs, he vows revenge. 

If the first act is a patchwork of personal machinations and skullduggery, the second plays out the consequences on a larger scale. Caesar’s son, Octavius (Zarah Hokule’a Spalding), arrives in Rome and forms a coalition with Antony and Lepidus (Enne Samuel). Armies are raised to fight the exiled Brutus and Cassius. They are ultimately successful, Brutus committing suicide still haunted by Caesar’s ghost. 

Director Salvatore Mannino skillfully creates an evocatively dark, tempestuous world that seems fraught and ominous. Hope Bennett’s impressively coherent costume design is reminiscent of the utilitarian garb of guerilla fighters, with hints of the latest Dune movies. The lighting and video projections (a moveable video wall conjures up changing scenes and moods) work deftly with the sound design, used most pleasingly to recreate booming arena speeches - excellent work by Alexander la Vallant Freer, James Lanius III and Steven Gilliland respectively. 

Cooper’s Caesar flits convincingly between potency and paranoia, while Miklovic and Cessna are powerfully engaging, mixing stirring rhetoric and aggressive ambition. Bartelle’s Mark Antony runs on high emotion throughout, the withering subtext of his ‘honorable men’ speech at Caesar's funeral one of the most memorable scenes. Seller’s Casca is everything a conniving, consigliere-type should be, while Hokule’a Spalding makes sure that Octavius’ arrival is explosively dramatic. 

It’s a large cast, but Monica R Harris, Ryan Hayes, Justice Hues, John Jabaley, Aria Jackson, Mary Langley, Matthew Raetz, Stephen Rose Pendleton, Enne Samuel, Joe Signorelli and Kristin Witt all render beautifully well-drawn characters. The staging is at close quarters, giving it a visceral immediacy. Disorienting torches flash across the audience and death scenes are starkly intimate.

As noted, it’s a spookily topical production, the lions that stalk the capitol almost too relevant an allegory for today’s real-life political landscape. Or perhaps violent swings of power are so historically common that Julius Caesar is simply an evergreen fable. Either way, lend your ears and eyes to this fantastically entertaining production - it's no less effective a filter through which to view today's politics than the nightly news. 

Julius Caesar plays at the Lupin Theatre through July 21st. For show information and tickets, click here. 
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