Cutting the Script, Pruning the Actors Reveals a Fast And Lively “Caesar”

It’s a difficult play, “Julius Caesar.” Political intrigue versus notions of honor, assassination, manipulation of public opinion, betrayal, are all enacted by an enormous cast of males — the two female characters are wives with little sway over their husbands. Then, too, the play’s greatest strength lies in the drama leading up to Caesar’s death; afterward, as civil war begins, bickering, reports of unseen battles and suicides fill the script with more talk than tension. Yet Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company’s founder, plunged into directing her first “Caesar” with an unexpected notion of how to make the play fresh, fast and compelling: Prune the script like a thorny rose to the bare canes — Packer’s version runs only two hours; then play it with just seven actors, six men and a woman, in a minimal staging depending heavily on lighting and sound design. The results are both thrilling and a little confusing. Shakespeare based his play on historical fact: Julius Caesar, victor over Pompey in a war for control of Rome, became the undisputed dictator of the state. Conservative factions in the Roman Senate resented his rise and their own loss of power. A small group led by Cassius and Brutus assassinated Caesar on March 15 — the Ides repeatedly mentioned in the play — in the year 44 B.C. Mark Antony, Caesar’s trusted general, soon joined forces with Octavius, Caesar’s heir, and with Lepidus in a triumvirate to fight the assassins. They won the civil war, then fought among themselves, and Octavius became Rome’s first emperor as Augustus Caesar. Oddly, the center of the play is not Caesar (Nigel Gore). He has little to do but voice his power, disregard warnings from both a soothsayer and his wife, Calpurnia (Kristin Wold), and get killed. Gore, a Packer veteran, is good: When he covers his face with his toga as Romans did when they knew they were dying, he is moving. No, the play belongs to Brutus (Eric Tucker), Cassius (Jason Asprey) and Mark Antony (James Udom). Brutus, beloved younger friend of Caesar, struggles mightily with his conscience as he is cajoled, almost wooed, into the conspiracy by fiery, impassioned Cassius. Yet Brutus is insufferably smug, so certain of his righteousness and honor that he fails to see when he gets every decision wrong. Cassius, on the other hand, motivated by jealously and envy as he is, may well be the more honorable. Antony, shocked and angered by his hero’s murder, is a soldier and does what a soldier does: He takes up arms, but only after turning the Roman populace against the conspirators in one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches. Packer’s actors all wear black and gray costumes that might have come from “Star Trek.” Over these they throw various togas and robes as they move in and out of characterizations and changing colored lighting. In blue light, they undulate like the River Tiber; they hiss when snakes are mentioned. And during Mark Antony’s “dogs of war,” the other cast members crawl about on all-fours. One of Packer’s greatest strengths is her insistence on speaking Shakespeare naturally. Lines are broken up and emphases placed where they would be in normal speech; but the pitch of voice, the pronunciation of words somehow retains the grandeur and wonder of Shakespeare’s writing. In “Caesar,” some actors are better at this than others. Gore, of course, has the Packer style down pat. Asprey, who is Packer’s son, is terrific. His delivery is as varied as Cassius’s emotions, and his energy never wanes. Udom is a find: Compelling, big-voiced, he commands the stage like an Antony should. Andrew Borthwick-Leslie’s Casca is a gossip’s gossip whose envy of Caesar is apparent in every word. Wold, as Calpurnia and as Portia, Brutus’s wife who eventually kills herself, is excellent. Mat Leonard’s Octavius, even with uneven line reading, is all youthful arrogance and assurance. You know quite soon which dog will eat the others. Tucker’s Brutus is a puzzle. Certainly he captures the smugness, the self-satisfied sense of knowing what’s best for Rome. His Rome, patrician Rome. But there is no vocal weight in his philosophic arguments with himself. Sometimes he whispers, sometimes he yells; and he breaks up his lines oddly and takes natural speaking too far. His lines sound commonplace. “Julius Caesar” runs in the Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA, through Aug.30. Call 413-637-3353.