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by Mike Poulton, directed by Gregory Doran

Royal Shakespeare Company, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

December 7, 2017-February 10, 2018;

Gielgud Theatre, London

June 14-September 8, 2018

Cicero: “O tempora o mores” (Oratio in Catilinam Prima, 63bc)

After the great success of Mike Poulton’s 2013 stage adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s historical novels Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012), the Royal Shakespeare Company has had Poulton adapt Robert Harris’s Cicero Trilogy (2006-2015) for the stage in 2017.  Poulton has created two plays from the trilogy under the title Imperium.  Except for one flashback, Poulton discards almost all of Harris’s first novel and uses the second novel of the trilogy, Lustrum (2009), as his source for the play’s Part I: Conspirator.  The final novel of Harris’s trilogy, Dictator (2015), becomes the source for Poulton’s Part II: Dictator. 

In Part I, Poulton depicts the descent of of Rome’s greatest orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43bc), from his height as consul in 63bc and uncoverer of Cataline’s conspiracy to Cicero’s disgrace and exile.  In Part II, Poulton chronicles Cicero’s vain attempts to keep out of politics during the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, the rebellion of Mark Antony and the rise of Octavius.   The plays’ seven-hour running time presents a sweeping epic that involves the backstory of characters that people will know from Shakespeare’s Roman plays and an alternate version of events in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.  Yet, it balances this wide view of historical events with the intimate doings in Cicero’s own household. 

Poulton basically deals with the same subject matter in Imperium as he did in his adaption’s of Mantel’s Thomas More novels – namely, the question of how an intellectual, patriotic, fiercely moral man manages to cope with in a society that is completely decadent and corrupt.  Cicero’s entire goal is to try to better the flawed democracy that governs the Roman Republic and return it to the old Republican values of good government and the rule of law that had been in place since the Republic was established in 509bc.  Generally considered the greatest orator of all time, Cicero had as the primary weapon in his struggle his ability with words.  Yet, being a fascinatingly flawed human being, Cicero is also shown by Poulton as not beyond using covert political machinations to help support his cause. 

The play opens with the discovery of the corpse of a 12-year-old boy washed up on the banks of the Tiber.  The child has had his throat cut, his belly slit open and his entrails examined as if he were a human sacrifice.  Pursuit of this mystery leads Cicero (Richard McCabe), who has just been voted in as Consul, to uncover a plot by Cataline (Joe Dixon) to murder him, overthrow the Roman Republic and place himself at its head.  Cataline, formally known as Lucius Sergius Catilina (108-62bc), scion of one of the founding families of Rome, felt its was an affront that a man of no pedigree like Cicero should have been elected to so high an office.     

The tale is told by Cicero’s slave, amanuensis and would-be biographer Tiro (Joseph Kloska), an actual historical figure, who fills the audience in on background, sets scenes and provides footnotes to Roman peculiarities.  Tiro’s narration is not obtrusive at all.  Poulton uses him only to speed over gaps in time and make the action clearer.  

The Roman notion of checks and balances was not to have a single head of state, but two.  When the intellectual Cicero was elected Consul, the dissolute Hybrida (Hywel Morgan) was elected co-Consul.  Cicero, though a highly moral man and philosopher, is not unwilling to use bribery to obtain useful information.  He knows that Hybrida was present at the sacrifice the boy and by giving Hybrida his own claim to Macedonia, is able to pry from Hybrida the names of Cataline’s conspirators. 

Cicero’s focus on Cataline, causes him not to look as deeply as he should at other dangers that confront the Roman Republic.  One of Cataline’s conspirators is the young Julius Caesar  (Peter de Jersey).  Cicero refuses to have Caesar executed along with the other conspirators because the evidence against him is only hearsay. Unfortunately, Cicero is unaware of Caesar’s vaulting ambition.  By not having him executed Cicero has left himself and the Roman Republic open to their demise.  Cicero wants to nip Cataline’s conspiracy in the bud because an outbreak of instability will draw the great general Pompey (Christopher Saul) back to Rome to quell it and likely set up a military dictatorship. 

Part II begins in 44bc, fourteen years after the events in Part I.  Cicero son Marcus (Daniel Burke), who was just an infant in Part I, is now a strapping teenager.  After a scene in which Caesar travels to the south of Italy to visit the happily exiled Cicero to invite him back to Rome to witness his Triumph as Dictator, Tiro fills us in on what has happened in the interim.  Cicero has been in exile since 58bc during which time many of his former enemies have died.  These include Pompey, whom Caesar defeated at Pharsalus in 48bc; the wealthy Crassus (David Nicolle), who financed Cataline, massacred with his troops in 53bc; and the dissolute Clodius, killed in a brawl in 52bc.  Clodius’ wife Fulvia (Eloise Secker) has now married Mark Antony.                                         

Though Cicero praises the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44bc, this support puts him at odds with Mark Antony (Joe Dixon), who is quick to fill the power vacuum left by Caesar’s death.  The boy Octavian (Oliver Johnstone), whom Caesar in his will adopts as his heir has greater plans for his own future than anyone can imagine.  The particular threat hanging over Cicero is Antony’s determination to grant no amnesty to Caesar’s assassins.

Much of the audience for Imperium are fans of Harris’s bestselling novels who are eager to see his characters embodied on stage.  Yet, Harris’s choice of subject matter, as revealed in essays in the programme, and Poulton’s decision to dramatize the novels has a much greater purpose than putting a figure like Cicero on stage, an orator whose life is ideal dramatic material, or in depicting a a slice of Roman history that has never been portrayed so completely. 

Thus, we are drawn into Cicero’s heroic efforts to keep the old Republican values alive even though we know that he is living in the last years of the Republic which will formally end when Octavian declares himself “Augustus” in 27bc.  Augustus will claim to have restored the Republic, but this merely the shadow of the old Republic since it has the first of the Caesars as its absolute ruler.  Exactly how and why democracy declines into autocracy makes us observe every detail of the action to learn how we can resist or at least prepare ourselves.

Both parts of Imperium are cast so perfectly and the cast is so universally strong that it is impossible to imagine any other actors in innumerable roles.  Chief of these, of course, is Richard McCabe as Cicero, a role he seems born to play.  Cicero may have been a great orator, but McCabe presents us with one of the most fully rounded characters in recent drama.  Yes, McCabe shows us Cicero as an almost actorly orator and politician and rather overproud intellectual, but he also shows us the man as a husband, father, brother, tutor and friend. 

McCabe’s Cicero is not so sophisticated that he prevents himself from doing a little dance whenever he scores a savoury victory.  He’s not so virtuous that he doesn’t mention whenever possible how he exposed Cataline’s conspiracy and saved the Republic.  He’s not so cynical that he can’t be flattered by Caesar or Octavian if they say things he wants to hear.  McCabe gives us a wonderfully engaging portrait of a fallible man who frequently is capable of achieving greatness.  Not only that, but McCabe successfully portrays Cicero at three very different ages – at 31 when his prosecution of Verres in Sicily made him famous, at  43 when he is elected Consul and at 62, gait stiffened and reactions slowed when he is in exile.    

Perfectly paired with Cicero is Joseph Kloska’s Tiro.  Kloska plays Tiro as a humble, unassuming man whose only goal is to give a true account of the great man he serves.  As a common man he is certainly the right character to act as narrator and thus function as a link between the audience and the action.  The historical Tiro, formally known as Marcus Tullius Tiro, died in 4bc at the age of 99, thus after virtually all main characters of the play.  He thus can step in and out of the action with a knowledge of how events will really play out granted to no one else.  Kloska’s genial Tiro serves very much like the realistic Sancho Panza to the idealistic Don Quixote of Cicero, who believes, even when it should appear impossible, that the Republic can still be saved.

Of Cicero’s enemies, Joe Dixon portrays two of the fiercest.  In Part I, his Cataline is so consumed with rage that appears mentally unhinged.  In Part II, his Mark Antony, quite unlike Shakespeare’s version, is a drunken lout who depends on the cunning of his wife Fulvia who makes all his political decision. 

Peter de Jersey’s Caesar grows in menace from Part I into Part II.  He may be excused for being ambitious, but gradually de Jersey makes clear that Caesar is driven by a mania for complete power that is beyond any of those around him to comprehend until it is too late.  It is marvellous to watch de Jersey’s performance as he shows with each scene how Caesar becomes increasingly rigid in mind and body as his fixation on power takes him over like some sort of disease.  It is fitting that the last time we see him is immobilized as a statue.

For most of Part I, Oliver Johnstone goes practically unnoticed as Cicero’s protégé Rufus, who acts with such deference toward his tutor.  However, when Rufus has to prosecute Hybrida against Cicero, we see how cunningly Rufus destroys his old master’s arguments by wielding his old master’s own rhetorical weapons.  In Part II, Johnstone’s Octavian is rather like Rufus but on a much higher plane.  Again Cicero’s failing is his love of flattery and the fact that Octavian has learned Cicero’s published works by heart immediately convinces Cicero that Caesar did right to make such a bright boy his heir.  Yet, as the action of Part II progresses, Johnstone shows that Octavian’s air of politeness and reserve does not derive from a sense of deference to Cicero and the senators but to a sense of superiority.  When, at the end, Octavian reveals what he sees as his destiny, outrageous as it may seem, Johnstone delivers it with such calm and matter-of-factness that the revelation is absolutely chilling. 

The world that Harris has created and Poulton transferred to the stage is filled with so many rich characters they cannot all be named.  Especially memorable is the slimy smugness of the banker Crassus played by David Nicolle, the moral outrage of the philosopher Cato played by Mark Grady-Hall, the moral decrepitude of Hybrida played by Hywel Morgan, the bombast of Pompey played by Christopher Saul, the sensuality of Clodia and the rigour of Fulvia both played by Eloise Secker, the complex suffering of Terentia, Cicero’s wife played by Siobhán Redmond and the gentle innocence of Tullia, Cicero’s beloved daughter played by Jade Croot.

Those who wish to see the events of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar viewed from a very difference context really must see Imperium.  Those who wish to see how the death of democracy came about in ancient Rome and to compare the situation then with the situation now really must see Imperium.  Those who love theatre and wish to see the RSC in top form in acting, direction and design really must see Imperium.  Let’s hope that this stunning show transfers to London after its run in Stratford and, if we are lucky, transfers again across the pond.  It is an unforgettable experience that, like the greatest history plays, will give you a new perspective on today’s world by looking at the world of the past. 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: (from top) Peter de Jersey as Julius Caesar in Imperium, Part II; Richard McCabe as Cicero in Imperium, Part I; Joseph Kloska as Tiro; Joe Dixon as Mark Antony; Joe Dixon as Mark Antony, Jay Saighal as Decimus, Peter de Jersey as Julius Caesar and Oliver Johnstone as Octavian; Oliver Johnstone as Octavian. ©2017 Ikin Yum.  

For tickets, visit www.rsc.org.uk.