sought to diminish the epic nature of the play and the almost mythical status of the characters: “Throughout he sacrifices the atmosphere of an explosive Rome in order to produce a number of petty men groping about on a vast and empty stage.” 61 No heroic shine was placed on Brutus’ motives, and it even hinted at moral cowardice in the assassination scene: “Blatchley also introduced a new conception of the assassination, in which Roy Dotrice as Caesar intentionally threw himself on the sword of Brutus, who was too timid to act.” 62
This effective piece of staging was adopted in many less cynical productions that followed. With Caesar initiating the final blow that will end his life, his assassination is echoed later in the play by theaided suicides of Cassius and Brutus, giving symmetry to Caesar’s revenge:
Contrasts, even contradictions, are perhaps inevitable in a modern production of
Julius Caesar
. Some aspects of the play, such as political assassination or the claims of democracy versus dictatorship, seem to invite a particularly contemporary staging; but other features, such as belief in auguries, the highly rhetorical style, and especially the presentation of Brutus as an embryonic tragic hero, seem to discourage any specifically contemporary emphasis. Ron Daniels’s [1983] production exploited these contrasting elements. In the programme, articles on Roman history and religious beliefs were set against the views of contemporary political figures about “preventative assassination.” 63
On the stage, there was much emphasis on the ceremonial aspect of the “holy chase” in which Antony takes part and on the ritual laments for the dead Caesar, yet most of the characters wore identical uniforms vaguely reminiscent of
Star Wars
. 64
The conspirators wore different shades of red, symbolizing empire and blood, but also bringing to mind Communist China, or perhaps even the Russian revolution. The contrast between the public and private personas of the characters was given emphasis in this production, which was
best remembered for presenting Caesar’s murder and the major orations in black-and-white, documentary style, on a large television screen lowered to mid-stage. This innovation, intended to highlight the contradictions between public image and private personality in contemporary society, was generally derided as gimmickry by critics and was discontinued later in the season. 65
However, this was just one element in which Daniels’s use of scale and perspective effectively delineated the events and themes of the play:
Clad in scarlet and gold, [Caesar] and his companions form a line from one side of the stage to the other and advance majestically towards the audience while the organ of Coventry Cathedral blares out in triumphant tones. It is an image from
The Will to Power
, 66 or might be. Riefenstahl’s film often used to be cited as an example of the power of the image to persuade the feelings against all sense … The vulgarities of music and design (largely crimson, gold and silver in the first half of the production and very much in the spirit of the Nuremberg rallies) might be intended as a commentary on imperial pretension—do we not have a quotation from Marx in the place of honour in the programme?—but first and foremost they strike one as simply vulgar … There is a complete change of décor for the second half of the play. We are now in
Mother Courage
67 country, shaggy black carpet underfoot, darkness at the back of the stage, grappling nets hanging from above, and soon, among the half-Roman, half-Hundred Years War military, Mother Courage’s cart itself appears, only here it has to serve largely as the body of Brutus’s tent. After the pretensions of the first half, men are cut down to size on the battlefield. 68
Terry Hands is a director keen to remove the political from his productions. In 1987 his production focused on the influence of power in a male-dominated
This effective piece of staging was adopted in many less cynical productions that followed. With Caesar initiating the final blow that will end his life, his assassination is echoed later in the play by theaided suicides of Cassius and Brutus, giving symmetry to Caesar’s revenge:
Contrasts, even contradictions, are perhaps inevitable in a modern production of
Julius Caesar
. Some aspects of the play, such as political assassination or the claims of democracy versus dictatorship, seem to invite a particularly contemporary staging; but other features, such as belief in auguries, the highly rhetorical style, and especially the presentation of Brutus as an embryonic tragic hero, seem to discourage any specifically contemporary emphasis. Ron Daniels’s [1983] production exploited these contrasting elements. In the programme, articles on Roman history and religious beliefs were set against the views of contemporary political figures about “preventative assassination.” 63
On the stage, there was much emphasis on the ceremonial aspect of the “holy chase” in which Antony takes part and on the ritual laments for the dead Caesar, yet most of the characters wore identical uniforms vaguely reminiscent of
Star Wars
. 64
The conspirators wore different shades of red, symbolizing empire and blood, but also bringing to mind Communist China, or perhaps even the Russian revolution. The contrast between the public and private personas of the characters was given emphasis in this production, which was
best remembered for presenting Caesar’s murder and the major orations in black-and-white, documentary style, on a large television screen lowered to mid-stage. This innovation, intended to highlight the contradictions between public image and private personality in contemporary society, was generally derided as gimmickry by critics and was discontinued later in the season. 65
However, this was just one element in which Daniels’s use of scale and perspective effectively delineated the events and themes of the play:
Clad in scarlet and gold, [Caesar] and his companions form a line from one side of the stage to the other and advance majestically towards the audience while the organ of Coventry Cathedral blares out in triumphant tones. It is an image from
The Will to Power
, 66 or might be. Riefenstahl’s film often used to be cited as an example of the power of the image to persuade the feelings against all sense … The vulgarities of music and design (largely crimson, gold and silver in the first half of the production and very much in the spirit of the Nuremberg rallies) might be intended as a commentary on imperial pretension—do we not have a quotation from Marx in the place of honour in the programme?—but first and foremost they strike one as simply vulgar … There is a complete change of décor for the second half of the play. We are now in
Mother Courage
67 country, shaggy black carpet underfoot, darkness at the back of the stage, grappling nets hanging from above, and soon, among the half-Roman, half-Hundred Years War military, Mother Courage’s cart itself appears, only here it has to serve largely as the body of Brutus’s tent. After the pretensions of the first half, men are cut down to size on the battlefield. 68
Terry Hands is a director keen to remove the political from his productions. In 1987 his production focused on the influence of power in a male-dominated
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