There is a wide aisle between the two audience sections,
and the company performed some of the action there, including the first scene.
As I mentioned, there were no props, but when Lucius spoke the lines about the
paper in Act II, he pretended to hand Brutus a paper, and then Jamison Jones as
Brutus used his copy of the play as the prop, which actually worked well.
Jamison Jones gave a really good performance. There was a moment when he
scratched his head, then stopped when his wife spoke the line about scratching
his head. It had the feel of almost being an unconscious move, which was great.
I was surprised by how many wonderful little details the actors were able to
give, considering they had to hold scripts the entire time, and taking into
consideration they didn’t have much rehearsal time (in fact, they weren’t able to
rehearse in the actual space until just a few hours before the performance).
The large table was used for the scene leading up to
Julius Caesar’s death (Act III Scene i), with Julius Caesar taking the upstage
center seat. He remained seated while the others stood. As there were no
swords, his assassination was handled in an interesting manner. Each of the men
slammed his hand against the table in quick succession, with Brutus doing it
last. What is also interesting is that Julius Caesar remained in that chair for
the rest of the play, a dominant presence even after his death, as all of that
action stems as a result of that decision by the men. One thing that always
strikes me about this play, in the scene where Brutus and Antony speak to the
crowd, is how easily the multitudes are swayed by oration, and by whoever is
currently speaking, and how little they actually think about what they hear. I
love that moment when Antony must remind them (and prompt them), “You have forgot the will I told you of.”
Joe Spano was wonderful as Antony, particularly in this scene, knowing just how
to play the crowd. Because Julius Caesar remained present after his death,
seated upstage, it was actually more of a jolt to the audience when he suddenly
stood to approach Brutus as an apparition at the end of Act IV. It was almost
as if he’d been watching all along, and chose this moment to make himself
known. I should mention here that Armin Shimerman was excellent as Julius
Caesar. I particularly enjoyed the scene when his wife tried to persuade him
to remain at home.
Interestingly, after Cassius died, he took one of the
seats at the table too, effectively joining Caesar once again, though the seat
farthest from him (downstage left). When Brutus spoke the line, “O, Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet,”
he faced upstage toward Julius Caesar, which was nice. Then when Brutus died,
he too took a chair at the table, downstage right, opposite Cassius. During
Octavius’ final speech, Julius Caesar stood up, remaining upstage center,
providing an effective stage image.
This staged reading was directed by Louis Fantasia, and
starred Christopher Anderson, Joel Asher, Sheldon Donenberg, Faline England,
Mira Furlan, Joe Hulser, Jamison Jones, Matt Lagan, Michael Miller, Michael
Naishtut, Noah Naishtut, Don DeForest Paul, Chris Rivera, Alex Rotaru, Armin
Shimerman, Joe Spano, Blaine Steele and Michael Zelniker. A reception (with Caesar
salad) followed the performance.
