Opening night of Halifax’s beloved outdoor summer celebration of the Bard, Shakespeare By the Sea, did not disappoint. This year’s Julius Caesar followed shortly after the launch of a new family production of non-Shakespeare Beauty and the Beast.
An ‘Unrehearsed Hamlet’ will come at the end of the season (Late August/Early September).
Director Drew Douris O’Hara executed a taut, 90-minute version on the Cambridge Battery expanse of Halifax’s biggest park, Point Pleasant, near the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. The two-level military earthworks provide a perfect theatrical presentation amphitheatre with room for up to 400 audience members.
Shakespeare By the Sea specializes in youthful casts, energetic performances and careful attention to text. A pre-show warm-up by two cast members helps loosen things up with questions to the audience (‘Where are you from—Hands up is this your first STBS show?’). A moment later, solemn vocal music begins Julius Caesar, the 1599 play that allegedly opened the Globe Theatre in London. O’Hara uses a brief slow-motion segment to preface the play; he will return to wordless movement two more times (Portia’s Dream sequence and the assassination scene) to heighten the sense of drama.
It’s a beautiful bit of staging that reminds us just how visual theatre can be when performed outdoors amid the glories of Mother Nature. The soft wind seemed to be ordered up by the tech operators; the slow decline of the evening light literally brought the play into twilight by the work’s finale.
The SBTS cast made some gender switches that reversed the Bard’s own practices of the Elizabethan Era, in which boys or young men played female parts. This time out, Caesar, Cassius and Mark Anthony were all played forcefully by women. Rosie Callaghan’s Cassius was particularly powerful in her exchanges with Brutus (Patrick Jeffrey). The duo’s command of the spoken Shakespearean idiom was pointed; the poetry was delivered with plenty of gusto.
This Julius Caesar crackled along with Caesar becoming a ghost by the halfway point.
Caesar, in the second half, would gently dominate the landscape while placing masks on recently deceased characters. It was a neat touch, both melancholy and a bit creepy.
The Battlements had been draped with painted Roman Scenes; a handful of Greek Column tops were strewn about to reinforce the historical setting of the Ancient World.
Schuyler Edgar Holmes’s costuming of the conspirators in the first half of the play revealed grey and blue togas; in the second act, battle armour adorned both sides of the civil conflict that broke out.
Julius Caesar is often used as a metaphor for broader political developments. Orson Welles presented one legendary production in New York City in the 1930s that echoed the growth of Fascism; SBTS did a modern-dress version in the late 1990s in Halifax’s actual courthouses that, so far, is the only full production of theirs that has been recorded professionally (it was broadcast on Bravo and more recently on Eastlink as part of the Cinema 902 series).
This Julius Caesar returns to its Shakespearian roots, set in the world of Ancient Rome. It’s a masterful production, one of the best I’ve ever witnessed by the august theatre company.
Shanoa Phillips’ ethereal music—used sparingly—along with some on-set drumming and light flute playing reminded that Shakespeare by the Sea has always used a minimalistic approach to production, as Mother Nature could be considered the ultimate director of the production.
As theatre, this Julius Caesar was a potent, satisfying production.
As an outdoor experience of the living arts held outside the linear confines of the proscenium arch—a 500-year-old play as relevant as today’s news reports—Julius Caesar was simply glorious.
Highly recommended.
The production runs to August 28. For tickets: (902) 422-0295 or email: info@shakespearebythesea.ca
Shakespeare By the Sea at the Cambridge Battery, Point Pleasant Park, Halifax presents
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Directed by Drew Douris O’Hara.
Cast:
Lucius/Soothsayer/Sixth Citizen: Siye Ajay
Cassius/Third Citizen: Rosie Callaghan
Julius Caesar/Octavius Caesar/Fourth Citizen: Burgundy Code
Mark Antony/Portia: Jade Douris O’Hara
Decius Brutus/Citizen: Patrick Jeffrey
Casca/Seventh Citizen/Cinna the Poet: Matt Lacas
Calpurnia/Lepidus/Fifth Citizen: Lillian Quarmyne
Cinna: Seb Reade
Creative Team:
Production Assistants: April Beattie/Tax Koubi
Fight Director: Dylan Brentwood
Director/Adapter: Drew Douris O’Hara
Fight Captain: Jade Douris O’Hara
Production Designer: Brenda Duran
Costume Designer: Schuyler Edgar Holmes
Design Intern: Hope MacPherson
Apprentice Stage Manager: Giovanna Musial
Assistant Director: Liam Oko
Composer/Musical Director/Associate Production Designer: Shanoa Phillips
Choreographer: Lilliona Qyarmyne
Production Stage Manager: Kate Redding
