.png)
SCENE IT: JULIUS CAESAR, a dictator for all seasons
- Theatre Scene Cape Town
- May 26
- 3 min read
Maria Kearns
Perhaps you downed that glass of house red too quickly before joining the queue making its way upstairs out of the bar, you think to yourself, cursing the theatre’s draconian no-drinks-inside policy as you glance down at your programme and instantly feel wrong-footed
Once you’ve settled into a seat and found yourself face-to-toga with a group of broody-looking men huddled together in an on-stage bath house, you peek at the programme cover again. No, surely, that really is Queen Elizabeth I, ruff and all.
The sight of the virgin monarch wouldn’t normally be cause for alarm (anymore), but you do have some questions in this case, as you’re fairly sure you’ve booked to see JULIUS CAESAR.
Yes, it’s safe to say I had my reservations about the framing device employed by director Fred Abrahamse for this production of Shakespeare’s play about the notorious Roman dictator. It’s also safe to say that those reservations were forgotten the moment Fiona Ramsay (as Elizabeth I) launched into the prologue from Henry V. (Wrong monarch, wrong play, I know, but it works: JULIUS CAESAR becomes a play within a play, a sort of cautionary tale for would-be traitors.)
After gathering a few rebellious noblemen to court, the Queen delivers her borrowed speech, calling for a ‘Muse of fire’ and ‘[a] kingdom for a stage, princes to act / [a]nd monarchs to behold the swelling scene’, after which the action moves to ancient Rome (and Ramsay transforms into the ill-fated emperor).
Ramsay’s Caesar is compelling, energetic, and genuinely funny, and—much like the plebians are when Caesar meets his end—the audience is left bereft when the actor makes her exit, which effectively deepens the crowd’s immersion in the world of the play.
From one radical innovation to another: the sudden departure from period dress as a hoodie-clad messenger bounds in after the assassination is another bold choice. This new direction is confirmed when Brutus (Marcel Meyer) delivers his funeral oration wearing shirt and tie and speaking into a microphone. At this point, I may have looked around me to confirm I hadn’t accidentally nodded off during a scene change and sleep-walked into a sales conference at the convention centre down the road.
It can be a tremendous challenge for young actors to hold their own when sharing a stage with experienced performers like Ramsay, but Nkosinathi Mazwai and Tailyn Ramsamy prove to be a pleasure to watch. The former embodies a delightfully acerbic and energetic Casca and the latter’s Marc Antony, though youthful in appearance, emits an undeniable magnetism and vigour befitting Shakespeare’s great orator.
Matthew Baldwin and Marcel Meyer, as Cassius and Brutus, respectively, enjoy the lion’s share of stage time. While these actors deliver competent performances, I couldn’t help but detect a certain mismatch between their almost staid approach and the undeniably high stakes faced by their characters. In the battlefield scene in Act 4, for instance, their argument quickly turned into what felt more like a couple’s tiff than a serious argument between military leaders.
The rather youthful Thinus Viljoen appeared miscast as the tragic Portia and the warrior Octavius.
While I thought having Elizabeth I introduce the play works surprisingly well, I must admit some of the subsequent choices related to costume and period were Greek to me. If the idea had been to shift the story through time to highlight the universal relevance of Shakespeare’s version of the fall of Caesar, it wasn’t done gradually enough to make that point.
But perhaps I’m not seeing the bigger picture; perhaps the confused setting is simply meant to reflect the fragmented state of our current reality. The evening’s final moments added to my doubts, however. Filling the auditorium with snippets from a broad range of famous political speeches seemed an odd way to end the play.
That JULIUS CAESAR is a remarkably prescient piece of theatre is no secret, as many recent productions could attest, but I got the feeling that the allegorical possibilities may have run away with the team here. Does Shakespeare’s treatise on politics, corruption, and the power of rhetoric need the reinforcement offered by lines delivered by the likes of Winston Churchill and the current US president?
JULIUS CAESAR opened at the Artscape Arena on 22 May 2025 and is running until 31 May 2025. Tickets are available through Webtickets or by contacting Artscape Dial-a-Seat on 021 421 76 95.