The die is cast: Shakespeare & Co. season starts strong with 'Julius Caesar'

By Kathleen Mellen
Staff Writer

Published on June 04, 2010

When Shakespeare & Company hails Caesar this month, it does so with great artistry, but with reduced ranks.

In the company's smallish black-box-style Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox, a cast of just six actors - four men and two women - gamely take on the 13 main characters of William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar," which opened S&Co.'s 2010 summer season, its 33rd.

That the actors do the play proud is a testament to their finely tuned theatrical skills, and to their steel-trap memories; each has learned and convincingly recites the Shakespearean tongue-twisting lines of multiple characters.

It also speaks to the handling of the script by the play's director, Jonathan Croy. He has adapted Shakespeare's five-act play, cutting or combining characters (in all, there are 41 named characters in the original play, plus a variety of soldiers, senators and plebeians), and trimmed the script to a manageable and quick-paced 90 minutes, played in two acts. To do so, he has dispensed with many of the play's opening lines, and uses a stylized device, akin to a Greek chorus, to set the scene and retell the important historical and dramatic details the audience will need to know.

It is the year 44 B.C. - a time when Rome has rid itself of its monarchy and is enjoying a republican form of government, with senators representing its citizens. But, as rumors spread that Roman general Julius Caesar will be crowned king, some of the city's noblemen conspire to kill him.

The play, which was one of the first to be performed at the Globe Theater in England in 1599, was written during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who, childless, had not named a successor. Shakespeare, who understood the human condition and political intrigues as well as any and better than most, wrote the play to reflect England's growing unease about its political future.

'Greek to me'

This production, with its reduced bells and whistles, is well suited to the intimate Bernstein Theatre, and places appropriate emphasis on Shakespeare's language. For "Julius Caesar" features some of the playwright's most glorious writing, especially in the funeral scene when Marc Anthony delivers his rousing and famous speech: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him." The speech that follows is one of the finest examples of Shakespeare's use of irony and political rhetoric, and it played well Friday in the very able hands of Andy Talen.

Indeed, of all Shakespeare's plays, this one is perhaps rivaled only by "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet" for containing the most recognized and repeated Shakespearean phrases - such as "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves," "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once" and even "It was Greek to me."

In Croy's expertly edited script, these iconic phrases, and others, ("When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff"), are presented intact, and hearing them spoken in their context is a good deal of fun.

Much of the cast has been on the road with this play since February, performing with S&Co.'s education program, for over 70 schools and theaters in New England, New York and New Jersey. They are led in this production by Scott Renzoni as Caesar, who is in his fourth season with the company (and who, incidentally is a four-time "Jeopardy" champion). Others, in addition to Talen as Marc Antony, are Sean Kazarian as Caesar's friend and assassination co-conspirator, Brutus (think "et tu Brute?"), Ryan Winkles as lead conspirator Cassius, and Katharine Abbruzzese and Dani Cervone, who tackle six roles between them, both men and women. It is a device that mostly works in the hands of these skilled and enthusiastic actors, although at one point, Cervone, as Calphurnia, Lucius and Artemidorus, goes in and out of doors on the set so frequently, appearing as different characters and in different costumes, that the play starts to feel a bit like a French farce.

Game for anything

The undertaking for the small ensemble cast seems nearly Herculean, and the actors render Shakespeare's celebrated script with professional skill and great artistic assuredness; it seems they gamely agreed to try anything Croy asked of them.

Which, I suppose was a must: One does get the impression that the show is produced on a shoestring budget - but what other kinds of budgets do most theater companies have to work with these days?

Midway through its 2009 season, the company made significant changes to reflect a worsening economy, company co-founder Dennis Krausnick told the Gazette in August. Due to decreasing dollars from sponsors and donors, the company cut its operating budget by $1 million from 2008's $5.6 million budget, laid off some company members and reduced the salaries of others. They further reduced costs by using simple, relatively inexpensive sets and costumes, as they have in this production of "Julius Caesar."

But this company hasn't let that get in the way of producing fine theater. Christian Schmitt created a very workable set, using a few Roman column-like pieces which he scattered around the stage, to be moved by the actors and used for different purposes - a seat here, a speaker's podium there.

He is aided ably by Stephen Ball, whose lighting design effectively helps create and reflect the varied settings and moods. Sound engineer Michael Pfeiffer had the task of providing a recorded background of music, crowd sounds and even the voice of the soothsayer, who warns Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March" - another innovative way in which to reduce the number of characters each actor was asked to play. Adding just one more to any of their plates might have tipped the balance from "this works" to "this doesn't."

For a full season schedule, more information, or to order tickets, call the box office at 637-3353 or order online at Shakespeare.org. Shakespeare & Co. is located at 70 Kemble St., Lenox.

Kathleen Mellen can be reached at kmellen@gazettenet.com.