Great Caesar's Ghost!: The Roman Repertory

We have been in and out of DC quite frequently in the past few weeks. The Shakespeare Theater Company has been running a "Roman Repertory", and we've had the opportunity to see two outstanding plays over as many weeks: Antony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

As always, I was quite impressed with the set they used for both plays. With just a few tweaks here and there, they were able to take the audience from Egypt to Rome and back again during the performance of A&C. The actors were brilliant! Kurt Rhoads (Antony, understudy) and Suzanne Burtish (Cleopatra) had a magnificent chemistry on stage, which is the ONLY way, in my opinion, to make this utterly dysfunctional couple likable. Indeed, they were LOVEable. I hadn't realized until the performance of JC that Mr. Rhoads had been the understudy for the part. I hoped he was going to play the role in JC as well, which he did, much to my delight.

Julius Caesar was just as bloody and spectacular as I had anticipated, this being the first time I'd seen the play live. There were more elaborate set changes for this production (ie, the staircase collapsed to form a wall, and the "podium" became elongated for Antony's infamous speech to the "friends, Romans, countrymen"). Dan Kremer portrayed an almost sage and likable Julius Caesar, albeit (albehe?), decadent. Tom Hammond played Brutus as a deliciously level-headed hero for the people. Spot on! All in all, a very visually stunning interpretation of Classic Shakespeare™.

The odd twist to all of this is that unlike the Greek Repertory (Tambourlaine, and Argonotica) earlier in the season, these plays were running simultaneously. But as with the Greek Repertory, there were different directors for each play, (the incomparable) Michael Kahn for A&C, and David Muse for JC. However, using the same set, and actors for both plays really helped tie the two together nicely. Also, I can't gush enough about the supporting cast. They. Were. Brilliant! And as my husband would point out, many of the Egyptian ladies-in-waiting had excellent racks. That may not be politically correct when writing a review of a Classic Shakespearean Play™, but it doesn't hurt the visual. ;)

Next up at the Lansburgh Theater: The Imaginary Invalid, which I have neither seen nor read. I'm positive I won't be disappointed.