julius caesar: the death of a dictator @FringeNYC reviews
Review from Reviews OFF BROADWAY
Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare as adapted by Orson Welles, was first produced in 1937 and brought the play into the contemporary context. The Gangbusters Theatre Company’s presentation races headlong into the Wells’ version, leaping into the text with rage and thunder – and is now playing at the Fringe NYC. Buckle up and watch it.
Like the Orson Welles’ version, this Julius is dressed and staged in contemporary trappings. Ominous black outfits, Billy clubs, hunting knives and guns replace the togas and daggers of the Shakespeare version. Combine those costumes with the look of the Gangbusters Company, where severe haircuts and muscular men are the norm, and these actors bring an intimidating presence to the stage. This Julius Caesar Fringe production makes prodigious use of flashlights as lighting, fostering a sense of intimacy. The cast and staging pulls the audience directly into the emotion of the show.
The cast played excellently off each other. Christian Levatino as Brutus was a stand-out, full of anger and regret. Both menacing and tormented, his conflicted feelings towards Julius played well in the small space. The rest of the cast worked extremely well with each other and within the space.
Gangbusters brought a large cast for the Fringe, there were a total of 16 speaking characters. The commitment to the project was evident not only in the size of the cast, but their ease in the Shakespearean vocabulary. The cast invested themselves into the language and feelings and challenged the audience to keep up.
This production of Julius Caesar is an excellent rendition of the show, ready tailored to today’s audience.
Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare as adapted by Orson Welles, was first produced in 1937 and brought the play into the contemporary context. The Gangbusters Theatre Company’s presentation races headlong into the Wells’ version, leaping into the text with rage and thunder – and is now playing at the Fringe NYC. Buckle up and watch it.
Like the Orson Welles’ version, this Julius is dressed and staged in contemporary trappings. Ominous black outfits, Billy clubs, hunting knives and guns replace the togas and daggers of the Shakespeare version. Combine those costumes with the look of the Gangbusters Company, where severe haircuts and muscular men are the norm, and these actors bring an intimidating presence to the stage. This Julius Caesar Fringe production makes prodigious use of flashlights as lighting, fostering a sense of intimacy. The cast and staging pulls the audience directly into the emotion of the show.
The cast played excellently off each other. Christian Levatino as Brutus was a stand-out, full of anger and regret. Both menacing and tormented, his conflicted feelings towards Julius played well in the small space. The rest of the cast worked extremely well with each other and within the space.
Gangbusters brought a large cast for the Fringe, there were a total of 16 speaking characters. The commitment to the project was evident not only in the size of the cast, but their ease in the Shakespearean vocabulary. The cast invested themselves into the language and feelings and challenged the audience to keep up.
This production of Julius Caesar is an excellent rendition of the show, ready tailored to today’s audience.
Review from CurtainUp.com by Deirdre Donovan
The Gangbusters Theatre Company's Julius Caesar: Death of a Dictator is a harsh achievement. Based on Shakespeare's text and heavily leaning on Orson Welles's adaptation, this one-act show takes the stuffiness out of the classic, and replaces it with gutsiness. The trademark of this Los Angeles-based company is "speed and violence," and you experience it in spades here. The action unfolds on a square vault of bare stage, stabbed with light from every point of the compass. The tragic story is set in a militant future, and the cacophonous music is courtesy of Metallica which clearly punctuates the murderous proceedings. Many directors make the cardinal error of staging Julius Caesar in a reverential fashion. But Leon Shanglebee, who directs with an iron grip here, is entirely bent on emphasizing the horror of Caesar's bloody assassination and the equally bloody political aftermath. He succeeds in his minimalist approach.
Shakespearean purists may object to the severe streamlining of Shakespeare's Roman play. True, many scenes are jettisoned, but the most celebrated speeches and lines ("Friends, Romans, and countryman". . ."This was the noblest Roman of them all") are wonderfully retained. The acting is athletic and the Bard's language is meticulously executed. These actors really pounce on their syllables, and get those iambic pentameters in motion. This is an exhilarating presentation that doesn't apologize for its hard-edges or emotional rawness. Without being the least cerebral, this Julius Caesar offers the audience a powerful lesson in modern ethics and politics. In short, this production is bottled thunder.
The Gangbusters Theatre Company's Julius Caesar: Death of a Dictator is a harsh achievement. Based on Shakespeare's text and heavily leaning on Orson Welles's adaptation, this one-act show takes the stuffiness out of the classic, and replaces it with gutsiness. The trademark of this Los Angeles-based company is "speed and violence," and you experience it in spades here. The action unfolds on a square vault of bare stage, stabbed with light from every point of the compass. The tragic story is set in a militant future, and the cacophonous music is courtesy of Metallica which clearly punctuates the murderous proceedings. Many directors make the cardinal error of staging Julius Caesar in a reverential fashion. But Leon Shanglebee, who directs with an iron grip here, is entirely bent on emphasizing the horror of Caesar's bloody assassination and the equally bloody political aftermath. He succeeds in his minimalist approach.
Shakespearean purists may object to the severe streamlining of Shakespeare's Roman play. True, many scenes are jettisoned, but the most celebrated speeches and lines ("Friends, Romans, and countryman". . ."This was the noblest Roman of them all") are wonderfully retained. The acting is athletic and the Bard's language is meticulously executed. These actors really pounce on their syllables, and get those iambic pentameters in motion. This is an exhilarating presentation that doesn't apologize for its hard-edges or emotional rawness. Without being the least cerebral, this Julius Caesar offers the audience a powerful lesson in modern ethics and politics. In short, this production is bottled thunder.
Review from New York Theatre Review by Aaron Grunfeld
Theater in Hollywood? It sounds like the start of a bad joke. Gangbusters does hail from LaLaLand, but they take theater as seriously as any company from NYC, Chicago, or Seattle. Their 80-minute adaptation of Julius Caesar (edited by Orson Welles himself!) turns Shakespeare's studied political drama into a nightmare sprint through a blackened world. A senator holds his gun to the head of a quaking plebe; Caesar struts like a rooster before fascist banners; Marc Antony keeps the mob in line with honeyed words and hefty bribes. It's a brutal, ugly vision.
With roughly half the script gone, the actors don't have much time for subtext. But Shanglebee leans hard on the portents and prophecies that swirl through the script. His Rome is a cursed world, led by villains and populated by a rabble. Even his Brutus (a saturnine Christian Levatino) is more of a passionate Goth than a stoic Roman, willing to assassinate Caesar with only a little prodding. If you're looking for Shakespeare with political relevance, look elsewhere. But if you want a violent Hollywood entertainment, see Caesar.
Theater in Hollywood? It sounds like the start of a bad joke. Gangbusters does hail from LaLaLand, but they take theater as seriously as any company from NYC, Chicago, or Seattle. Their 80-minute adaptation of Julius Caesar (edited by Orson Welles himself!) turns Shakespeare's studied political drama into a nightmare sprint through a blackened world. A senator holds his gun to the head of a quaking plebe; Caesar struts like a rooster before fascist banners; Marc Antony keeps the mob in line with honeyed words and hefty bribes. It's a brutal, ugly vision.
With roughly half the script gone, the actors don't have much time for subtext. But Shanglebee leans hard on the portents and prophecies that swirl through the script. His Rome is a cursed world, led by villains and populated by a rabble. Even his Brutus (a saturnine Christian Levatino) is more of a passionate Goth than a stoic Roman, willing to assassinate Caesar with only a little prodding. If you're looking for Shakespeare with political relevance, look elsewhere. But if you want a violent Hollywood entertainment, see Caesar.
