Julius Caesar
Shakespeare is difficult to do nowadays: the dialogue is often opaque, the action can come across as tame in an age of constant digital stimulation, and the themes, while universal, can seem irrelevant to modern life. Yet there are very compelling reasons that his works remain cultural treasures; they address issues of life, death, choices, love, ambition and effort that are perennial facets of the human experience.
That said, the Marin Shakespeare Company’s production of Julius Caesar is not done very well, even taking into account the generosity which one is willing to accord hardworking actors and crew members for such a difficult feat of staging as good Shakespeare.
The company falls victim to the common mistake to make the difficult dialogue compelling through exaggerated declamation and volume. Rather, it is key to invest such words with the cadence and inflection of true life (which is itself arguably the crux of good acting). If anything, the players fail to do so by committing the understandable error of trying too hard to make the script sound the way most people think of Shakespeare. Though the readings are often wooden, there are some bright spots of entertainingly exaggerated performance; in particular Steven Klum deserves mention for his animated and amusing turn as Casca. On the other hand, Barry Kraft in the title role belies his resume as a veteran of all of Shakespeare’s works with his forced hauteur and total lack of a commanding presence.
The action scenes are also hindered by the leaden performances; but to the credit of the company they give it their all, and make the most of a limited budget and the inventive powers of pure imagination. The venue too is a delight, and a warm summer evening provides the ideal backdrop to an evening at the theater.
Above all, it is the thematic content of Shakespeare’s work which suffers here. Julius Caesar is principally a play about power, ambition and loyalty. At conflict are the ideas that no single person should hold absolute power, and the fact that the deeds of great individuals are often the most powerful engines of change and progress in history. In the course of this conflict, people must risk their lives and choose with whom to throw in their lot, with all of the tension, fear, and excitement that entails. The actors, alas, entirely fail to convey the power of these moments.
While it is perhaps harsh to demand perfection from a small and largely unprofessional company of players such as this, the art of theater at a local level is something of an endangered species these days, and though people will arguably always perform Shakespeare, it is of no help to the practice of the art form, or indeed to the propagation of the works of the immortal bard, to stage plays as bland, perfunctory, and flat as the Marin Shakespeare Company’s current staging of Julius Caesar.
Julius Caesar continues through September 26 at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, Dominican University of California (on Grand Avenue), San Rafael, CA 94913. For more information visit the Marin Shakespeare Company’s website.
