American Players Theatre tackles the bloody politics of 'Julius Caesar'

Lindsay Christians | The Capital Times |July 3, 2020

"It is a strange-disposed time."

Shakespeare wrote that line 400-plus years ago, but it reads like a tagline for 2020. In fact, a good portion of “Julius Caesar,” with its portentous heralds of doom, feels quite contemporary at the moment.

It’s been three years since confused theatergoers rushed the stage to defend a Trump lookalike in Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park performance of “Julius Caesar.” American Players Theater originally programmed the play for this summer, an election year, and insisted when they did it would not be modern.

“Nobody has any interest in doing that,” said artistic director Brenda DeVita last fall. “This play has so much addressed to the audience, (director Stephen Brown-Fried) wants our audience to feel like this is for them. The audience is central to discussion about this play.”

The shift from stage under the stars to a video conference room for a reading of “Caesar” removes the audience from the equation. Yet viewers might still feel a twinge of recognition when a sick man (Jim Ridge) appears in a mask. If we were watching in person, we would probably be wearing one just like it.

PBS Wisconsin debuts the reading, the fourth in APT’s “Out of the Woods” series on Friday, July 3 at 7 p.m. It will remain available through July 26.

Required reading for high school sophomores everywhere, “Julius Caesar” has a cast of thousands, all uttering impassioned speeches and dire pronouncements as the “tyrant” of the title makes his oblivious way toward a bloody demise.

Whether Caesar is headed toward dictatorship, and what obligation his allies have to stop his rise, is a central question of the play. If the story’s new to you, know there’s an overconfident general (Caesar, played with bombast by Brian Mani); Brutus, who betrays him (Jim DeVita, perfectly cast); and another, savvier friend, Marc Antony (Gavin Lawrence), who directs the energy of the crowd with the masterful skill of a politician.

Read the rest of the review here.