One Wholly Positive Review by Sharonafyre
First, the play was set in a samurai setting, with all the senators as samurai warriors. I admit that at first this was confusing, because we were expecting gladiator and toga garb, but I immediately got it. That they were samurai conferred a recognizeable honor system on the senators that made it easier to understand the lengths to which they decide to go.
Second, the role of Caius Cassius was made into a female character. This gave the whole show a very Crouching Tiger feel, because the whole time Brutus and Cassius have a (non-romantic) gender dynamic between them in addition to the dynamics of the script.
Third, Greg Loughridge (director) chose a bunch of interesting stage business. He had a lot of call and response from the audience, including having text for the crowd to read in the program. This worked very well, where it could have been limp, because 1) the audience last night was willing to participate, and 2) they actor who played Chorus was very good at engaging and enrolling participation. Also, for mob scenes of partying, Greg used modern music, including the Hendrix guitar riff from the opening of Voodoo Child. Somehow, it worked. At one point, with no other modern tech at all visible (samurai swords and the dojo were the major scene setting elements), Caesar walks out on the stage on a cell phone talking to Octavius. (It must've been communication by letter in the original). The cell phone, as the cast said later at the cabaret, was Distracting. For me, the rest of it worked well.
The whole play basically takes place in a dojo, where Senators practice martial arts during their dialogues. There were very rigid and uniform ritual gestures and motions, used by all characters, which created an effective air of samurai formality.
The show was carried by the strength of the main characters, especially Brutus (played by David Quicksall, the best I've ever seen him), Cassius (Hana Lass, who was very strong), and Portia (Kelly Kitchens, who wowed me). I also felt that Andrew McGinn's Caesar was very strong. Marc Antony was stronger in the second act, where he really pulled it off. Brandon Simmons just about stole the show with his distinct personalities of Chorus and of Casca, whom he played as an effite gay.
Lass played her samurai senator with extremely distinct speech and formalistic mannerisms, which I know from lobby discussions did not work for everyone. It worked for me. Her extreme diction and formality of speech and motion contributed to my understanding of her female senator. It seemed samurai. It seemed like what that character would do to make up for being female, to be extremely proper and rigid and within martial arts form in every word and action. Cassius is so unsympathetic, until you give her an underdog factor (gender) to overcome. It really sets Cassius' envy or Caesar's success in a more understandable light and somehow makes it more forgiveable.
Brutus was played with constant, effective understatement. He only worked himself up to emotion in the scene where he actually dips his hands in Caesar's blood. The actor spoke quietly and evenly, forcing the audience to be silent to hear him. He was very confucius, very samurai, very much recalling Chow Yun Fat from Crouching Tiger. It contributed to my understanding of the sense of honor and dignity and duty he felt.
The whole time, I felt like they were channeling the two main characters from Crouching Tiger, although there was no overt romance between them at all. Brutus was clearly (very effectively) attached to Portia, but his sense of samurai duty was more important to him than his domestic life.
Kelly Kitchens surprised me with Portia. She made me feel a LOT of emotion for her love for her spouse in her few scenes. Very powerfully acted.
McGinn's Caesar was good. He was an interesting casting choice, since usually Caesar must be portrayed as weak and unlikeable in order to confer honor and sympathy onto the brutal murder by friends. McGinn was big, strapping, handsome, confident, and strong. Yet he managed to show the weaker underbelly. Somehow he conveyed the quixotic, unreliable nature of Caesar while presenting a commanding physical presence.
Brandon Simmons' Casca stole the show. What could have been heavy handed and campy instead was brilliant. Also, he was distinct and a highly effective crowd stirrer upper as the Chorus. Simmons is a very strong character actor and I hope to see him again in SSC shows.
Especially Brutus and Cassius were shown in the most sympathetic light it is possible to see murderers in. The samurai setting really cemented the duty and dignity the characters were required to feel. It gave a more meaningful context than togas and gladiator garb could have done. Cassius' craving for Brutus platonic love was very deftly portrayed in this honor-bound context. Having Cassius be a woman added an interesting (non-romantic) layer to their interplay.
Then, after such a great show, I stuck around for the cabaret that is traditionally performed on the last saturday night of every run. The samurai material made for excellent comedy in the cabaret.
The MC was Ben Johnson from Swansong (another play that just completed its run a couple days ago), and he was funny to a point and then (as he said, he ran out of material) not so funny anymore, but the acts were SO GOOD. Cassius and Brutus did a very serious intro and then broke into a campy Together Wherever We Go and committed simultaneous suicide. The whole cast did a hillarious kung fu movie scene with three people reading scripts from off stage and the actors moving their mouths with some really funny text while they did their real blocking from the opening scene when Caesar comes in disguised as a cobbler. The guy who played Casca did a riotous fake aria in which he pretended to fawn to Caesar, but a girl off to the side held up "surtitles" that read really funny text about his plot to kill the "MF", and his aria was very entertaining (bugs Bunny goes to the opera).
One of the cab acts was a Wisconsin Town Hall meeting where they planned the menu for the Lupercal festival, and it was kind of a lame act (although the actors clearly had fun getting their Fargo accents on), but one of the company regulars (Gordon) ended it with his accordion, as he is wont to do, and they started doing the polka first with each other and then they drew people up from the audience. And try as I might to avoid it, I got pulled up to dance the polka with Mark Antony. There were at least 5 or 6 other very strong acts. Of course they closed with Everybody Was Kung Foo Fighting. It was AWESOME.
This was a total success, a brilliant show. It evoked in me the very strong response I only get to effective live theater, to brilliant acting performed in the moment, in front of my eyes, which will never be seen again because it is not being recorded. If I could have a recording of last night's show, I would watch it again and again. It is an honor and a thrill to sit there and have people perform so amazingly in front of my eyes. (Plus, sitting in the front row which is essentially onstage, I always feel like I am in the show.) It practically gave me goosebumps, how strongly I felt about the acting.
I've never really thought about that before, but the fact that it will never be exactly the same again is part of what is so magical about live theater. That, and the fact that they take the huge risk of fucking it up live, and yet they make no mistakes, or no errors that detract at all - because they are SO magically transformed into the people they are portraying. It's so intimate, this live performance.
Due to my backstage access at my sister's shows and due to my going on 12-year involvement with this theater company, and due to the fact that I got to spend 3 hours with the Director of this show last year engaged in interesting personal conversation, I felt like I knew the people, like I was invovled. When the cab was over, it was all I could do to leave. I totally felt like going backstage and discuss their work with the actors. If I hadn't been there with a friend who did not feel that way, I probably would have done so.
Second, the role of Caius Cassius was made into a female character. This gave the whole show a very Crouching Tiger feel, because the whole time Brutus and Cassius have a (non-romantic) gender dynamic between them in addition to the dynamics of the script.
Third, Greg Loughridge (director) chose a bunch of interesting stage business. He had a lot of call and response from the audience, including having text for the crowd to read in the program. This worked very well, where it could have been limp, because 1) the audience last night was willing to participate, and 2) they actor who played Chorus was very good at engaging and enrolling participation. Also, for mob scenes of partying, Greg used modern music, including the Hendrix guitar riff from the opening of Voodoo Child. Somehow, it worked. At one point, with no other modern tech at all visible (samurai swords and the dojo were the major scene setting elements), Caesar walks out on the stage on a cell phone talking to Octavius. (It must've been communication by letter in the original). The cell phone, as the cast said later at the cabaret, was Distracting. For me, the rest of it worked well.
The whole play basically takes place in a dojo, where Senators practice martial arts during their dialogues. There were very rigid and uniform ritual gestures and motions, used by all characters, which created an effective air of samurai formality.
The show was carried by the strength of the main characters, especially Brutus (played by David Quicksall, the best I've ever seen him), Cassius (Hana Lass, who was very strong), and Portia (Kelly Kitchens, who wowed me). I also felt that Andrew McGinn's Caesar was very strong. Marc Antony was stronger in the second act, where he really pulled it off. Brandon Simmons just about stole the show with his distinct personalities of Chorus and of Casca, whom he played as an effite gay.
Lass played her samurai senator with extremely distinct speech and formalistic mannerisms, which I know from lobby discussions did not work for everyone. It worked for me. Her extreme diction and formality of speech and motion contributed to my understanding of her female senator. It seemed samurai. It seemed like what that character would do to make up for being female, to be extremely proper and rigid and within martial arts form in every word and action. Cassius is so unsympathetic, until you give her an underdog factor (gender) to overcome. It really sets Cassius' envy or Caesar's success in a more understandable light and somehow makes it more forgiveable.
Brutus was played with constant, effective understatement. He only worked himself up to emotion in the scene where he actually dips his hands in Caesar's blood. The actor spoke quietly and evenly, forcing the audience to be silent to hear him. He was very confucius, very samurai, very much recalling Chow Yun Fat from Crouching Tiger. It contributed to my understanding of the sense of honor and dignity and duty he felt.
The whole time, I felt like they were channeling the two main characters from Crouching Tiger, although there was no overt romance between them at all. Brutus was clearly (very effectively) attached to Portia, but his sense of samurai duty was more important to him than his domestic life.
Kelly Kitchens surprised me with Portia. She made me feel a LOT of emotion for her love for her spouse in her few scenes. Very powerfully acted.
McGinn's Caesar was good. He was an interesting casting choice, since usually Caesar must be portrayed as weak and unlikeable in order to confer honor and sympathy onto the brutal murder by friends. McGinn was big, strapping, handsome, confident, and strong. Yet he managed to show the weaker underbelly. Somehow he conveyed the quixotic, unreliable nature of Caesar while presenting a commanding physical presence.
Brandon Simmons' Casca stole the show. What could have been heavy handed and campy instead was brilliant. Also, he was distinct and a highly effective crowd stirrer upper as the Chorus. Simmons is a very strong character actor and I hope to see him again in SSC shows.
Especially Brutus and Cassius were shown in the most sympathetic light it is possible to see murderers in. The samurai setting really cemented the duty and dignity the characters were required to feel. It gave a more meaningful context than togas and gladiator garb could have done. Cassius' craving for Brutus platonic love was very deftly portrayed in this honor-bound context. Having Cassius be a woman added an interesting (non-romantic) layer to their interplay.
Then, after such a great show, I stuck around for the cabaret that is traditionally performed on the last saturday night of every run. The samurai material made for excellent comedy in the cabaret.
The MC was Ben Johnson from Swansong (another play that just completed its run a couple days ago), and he was funny to a point and then (as he said, he ran out of material) not so funny anymore, but the acts were SO GOOD. Cassius and Brutus did a very serious intro and then broke into a campy Together Wherever We Go and committed simultaneous suicide. The whole cast did a hillarious kung fu movie scene with three people reading scripts from off stage and the actors moving their mouths with some really funny text while they did their real blocking from the opening scene when Caesar comes in disguised as a cobbler. The guy who played Casca did a riotous fake aria in which he pretended to fawn to Caesar, but a girl off to the side held up "surtitles" that read really funny text about his plot to kill the "MF", and his aria was very entertaining (bugs Bunny goes to the opera).
One of the cab acts was a Wisconsin Town Hall meeting where they planned the menu for the Lupercal festival, and it was kind of a lame act (although the actors clearly had fun getting their Fargo accents on), but one of the company regulars (Gordon) ended it with his accordion, as he is wont to do, and they started doing the polka first with each other and then they drew people up from the audience. And try as I might to avoid it, I got pulled up to dance the polka with Mark Antony. There were at least 5 or 6 other very strong acts. Of course they closed with Everybody Was Kung Foo Fighting. It was AWESOME.
This was a total success, a brilliant show. It evoked in me the very strong response I only get to effective live theater, to brilliant acting performed in the moment, in front of my eyes, which will never be seen again because it is not being recorded. If I could have a recording of last night's show, I would watch it again and again. It is an honor and a thrill to sit there and have people perform so amazingly in front of my eyes. (Plus, sitting in the front row which is essentially onstage, I always feel like I am in the show.) It practically gave me goosebumps, how strongly I felt about the acting.
I've never really thought about that before, but the fact that it will never be exactly the same again is part of what is so magical about live theater. That, and the fact that they take the huge risk of fucking it up live, and yet they make no mistakes, or no errors that detract at all - because they are SO magically transformed into the people they are portraying. It's so intimate, this live performance.
Due to my backstage access at my sister's shows and due to my going on 12-year involvement with this theater company, and due to the fact that I got to spend 3 hours with the Director of this show last year engaged in interesting personal conversation, I felt like I knew the people, like I was invovled. When the cab was over, it was all I could do to leave. I totally felt like going backstage and discuss their work with the actors. If I hadn't been there with a friend who did not feel that way, I probably would have done so.