Julius Caesar at RSC Stratford

I was lucky enough to see Edward Hall's vibrant production of Julius Caesar at Stratford in 2001. Greg Hicks was a dynamic Brutus and Tim Pigott-Smith an insecure Cassius. In the old theatre, the introduction of a catwalk and a mob scattered through the auditorium worked really well in what is, quite frankly, a fairly boring political play interrupted by some devastating interludes.

In this new production, Andrew Jackson has the benefit of the new space, so much more suitable to this play. He has raised the stage ( brilliant for us in the circle, less so for those at the front of the stalls peering upwards) with only a raised plinth on what is otherwise a bare stage. We are definitely in Roman times, the togas are perhaps too overpowering.

What surprised me most was that the cast is so young. I had forgotten that the play is mostly about the conspirators. Brutus and Cassius have twice as many lines as the rest of the cast put together. Alex Waldmann (on the right) is such a youthful and slight Brutus, it was hard to imagine his leadership in their project. Both Martin Hutson as Cassius and James Corrigan as Mark Anthony also seem to have been cast in a young person's guide to Rome. So when Caesar eventually comes on stage, we are taken aback by the maturity of Andrew Woodall. He ( and Patrick Drury as the poet( seem so out of place.

On the plus side, we have beautifully spoken dialogue, I hardly missed a word. The funeral orations to the mob from Brutus and then Mark Anthony are quite superb. These resonate with much of the political rhetoric we still see around the world today. So my final reaction was that there was too much concentration on the politics and not enough theatricality in the performance. I just hope my seat in the stalls for the upcoming Coriolanus is not too near the front.