Reviews 2002
Reviews 2002
✭✭✭✭✭
by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Christopher Newton
Shaw Festival, Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 21-October 27, 2002
"Politics and Spectacle"
“Caesar and Cleopatra” currently playing at the Shaw Festival is visually it’s one of the most stunning productions the Shaw has ever presented. Christopher Newton’s direction on his last play by Shaw while still Artistic Director is filled with insight. And, as usual in the best productions at the Shaw, there is no weak link in the entire 32-member cast. This is a great achievement that will not be bettered anywhere for a very long time.
Shaw’s play, first produced in 1906, was written as a kind of prologue to the events portrayed in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and “Antony and Cleopatra”. Our knowledge of history, particularly as shown in those tragedies, casts a shadow of irony over every aspect of Shaw’s play. While Shaw depicts Caesar’s conquest of Egypt and the young Cleopatra’s rise to the throne, he simultaneously underscores the traits and situations that will later doom them both. A play about the nature of power and how to wield it becomes at the same time a play about the evanescence of that power.
Newton and designer William Schmuck underscore these themes in two ways. All of the action is played out on monumental sets depicting seven locations. Not only do we have the well-known scene set near the Sphinx (here beautifully rendered) but all the other scenes of rooftops, quays, palaces, crypts, are modifications of a wall and steps seeming constricted of ancient ashlars. The scale suggests both the grandeur of human achievement and the minute space a human life occupied in the flow of time. Kevin Lamotte’s lighting enhances the mood of mystery and drama. In a brilliant stroke Newton and Schmuck have used the costumes to shift the action forward from 48BC to the period just before World War I. Shaw implicit comparison of the Roman Empire with the British Empire now becomes explicit. The usually out-of-place character Britannus now fits in perfectly and the discussions of how to govern wisely, especially in the Middle East, take on new relevance. The play begins with a prologue as a voiceover by Newton himself adapted from Shaw usually omitted prologue spoken by the Egyptian god Ra, who from the perspective of eternity, sees human endeavour as vanity—“the dust heaps on which ye slave, and which ye call empires, scatter in the wind.”
A further innovation on Newton’s part is to have Caesar played as “middle-aged” would seem to us and not as the advanced age it would seem to the ancients. Now Caesar’s fascination with Cleopatra can seem part of a mid-life crisis preoccupied as he is with his age. And Cleopatra’s interest in Caesar is more plausible especially when he is costumed as here as an Indiana Jones.
Jim Mezon captures Caesar both as a man of action and contemplation. He seems a man weighed down by his own achievements. He is attracted by what seems to be a carefree girl but is also aware of the foolishness of this attraction. He struggles with his own world-weariness to teach this 16-year-old how to wield power. Caroline Cave is very fine as Cleopatra even if she can’t quite communicate nuance and complexity of emotion that Mezon can. She is especially good in the first half of the play in charting Cleopatra’s transition from fearfulness to her first assumption of command. In the second half when we see her first abuse of power, we need to see more of the woman she will become than the teenager she still is.
The remainder of this cast of 32 reminds one yet again how solid the Shaw ensemble is. Sarah Orenstein lends such intensity to Cleopatra’s mysterious servant Ftatateeta that she seems like a demon incarnate. Her equivalent in the Egyptian camp who wants Cleopatra’s brother Ptolemy to rule is the devious politician Pothinus. Neil Barclay makes him both pompous and dangerous. As Ruffo, Caesar’s second-hand man, Guy Bannerman gives one of his best ever performances. He gives us the dourness and gruffness of a Scot but makes Ruffo a fully rounded character, especially near the end when he must acknowledge his misdeed. Patrick R. Brown makes a suave and elegant Apollodorus and Norman Browning is at his comic best as the prim and stuffy Britannus.
Jeff Lillico evokes both laughter and pity as the moral and physical weakling Ptolemy who is being used as a puppet by the faction opposed to Cleopatra. Fine work also comes from Peter Millard as crafty Theodotus, Tyley Ross in the straight dramatic role of Achillas, Mike Wasko as the gallant Lucius Septimus and Jeffrey Renn in a comic cameo as a Roman Sentinel.
Newton’s cinematic direction make this the most enjoyable production of Shaw’s epic that I’ve ever seen. The updating brings a sense of adventure and romance and invites us to compare and contrast periods in a way that the usual togas and tunics cannot do. Its panoply of fine performances makes this a date with history you won’t want to miss.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Caroline Cave and Jim Mezon. ©2002 Shaw Festival.
2002-10-01
Caesar and Cleopatra