DIRECTOR'S NOTE
The show begins in peacetime, with Caesar victorious against Pompeii, in a way like those leaders who led their countries to independence and then became dictators through popular support because of their military success. But power gained through these means is never easily held. The stability and peace after victory are disturbed when Caesar is offered a crown and Cassius begins plotting, gathering a group of conspirators together to assassinate Caesar on the Ides of March. Cassius resents Caesar’s power and does not want his rule to become the dictatorship she believes it will be, but is power hungry herself. Yet to be successful, she needs Brutus. Cassius wants to use him to gather the populace’s support, to make an assassination seem patriotic. Brutus may seem completely virtuous, but it is important to recognize that no character is clearly a villain or hero: Cassius is not pure evil, but driven by a very human desire for power- she doesn’t want to create chaos and destruction. Brutus is not pure good— he is easily manipulated, is not immune to a desire for power, and has his own form of arrogance in that he believes too strongly in the power of his own honor and virtue, which eventually leads to his own ruin. He overrides Cassius at every turn, and his constant faith in his own nobility is his downfall— it leads to the key mistake of letting Marc Antony survive over Cassius’ protestations, and then to let him speak. Antony is an excellent politician. After Caesar’s death, he performs the ultimate political move and manipulation of public opinion, swaying an easily convinced populace into a terrifying mob that forces Brutus and Cassius to flee and turns the formerly peaceful and triumphant nation into a war-zone.
At the opening of the play, the urban setting is familiar, one that we could see in a newspaper, or even in our own city—one that is going along normally. As the show progresses, we see the fall of a nation as it tumbles from the high of a military victory and relative prosperity to the utter destruction of war. It starts prosperous but with cracks in the façade that only become evident as omens thunder (literally) and plotting occurs in dark corners, shadows, and in the middle of the night. Despite all of the portents (including the fairly blatant warnings of a crazy homeless guy and his wife’s creepy dreams), despite the creeping darkness, Caesar has to keep going. Caesar’s death is a turning point, but the destruction is not cemented until Marc Antony betrays the conspirators whose blood he has taken onto his own hands. With inspired oratory and public manipulation, he creates a blood-thirsty mob that destroys and loots the city. As the nation tumbles into civil war, it falls into ruin— the world is shattered; blood, death and destruction rule as we see familiar images of war-torn states— rubble, military barricades, and the physical remnants of shattered lives that were stable a very short time ago.
At the opening of the play, the urban setting is familiar, one that we could see in a newspaper, or even in our own city—one that is going along normally. As the show progresses, we see the fall of a nation as it tumbles from the high of a military victory and relative prosperity to the utter destruction of war. It starts prosperous but with cracks in the façade that only become evident as omens thunder (literally) and plotting occurs in dark corners, shadows, and in the middle of the night. Despite all of the portents (including the fairly blatant warnings of a crazy homeless guy and his wife’s creepy dreams), despite the creeping darkness, Caesar has to keep going. Caesar’s death is a turning point, but the destruction is not cemented until Marc Antony betrays the conspirators whose blood he has taken onto his own hands. With inspired oratory and public manipulation, he creates a blood-thirsty mob that destroys and loots the city. As the nation tumbles into civil war, it falls into ruin— the world is shattered; blood, death and destruction rule as we see familiar images of war-torn states— rubble, military barricades, and the physical remnants of shattered lives that were stable a very short time ago.