I saw myself a fine performance of
Julius
Caesar tonight over at the
Georgia
Shakespeare Festival. Imagine
Caesar
in all the corpulent commanding style of a
Huey
P. Long, with a ribald laugh and a proud habit of rounding his bottom lip
with his tongue.
 |
| Long live Caesar! |
The entire performance was excellent, but knowing so little about the art of acting
and thus being unable to speak with much authority to its quality, I will say
that the southern political motif adopted for this show was a superb artistic
embellishment to a classic with which so many are almost too familiar. The fact
that Caesar reminds us of Long, a charismatic former governor and senator of Louisiana,
frees one of Shakespeare's "histories" for its historical binds. Caesar,
as illustrated, is a very popular yet dictatorial leader. Those exact words could
also be used to describe Long who almost completely abolished local governments
in his state yet enjoyed a strong following when word of his presidential aspirations
became known. Unfortunately for Long, when he seemed on the brink of political
success, he was assassinated in 1935 before he could "take the crown."
Certainly, the parallels there are obvious. And, what two periods better illustrate
the power of public speech. Marc Antony's "Friend, Romans, Countrymen"
inciting the Roman citizens to frenzied revenge and Long's mastery of the
filibuster
that held the entire senate in frustrated deadlock. Ironically, hours of those
filibusters
were spent reciting Shakespeare. No kidding. Overall this show was fabulous,
and though I said I lacked the experience to comment on the acting, I will say
based solely on impression that the actor who played Marc Antony gave the best
performance I have ever seen on stage.
Other than that…nothing much.
