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To The Top...and back
by Caitlin Murphy
Shakespeare is hard. A banal thought, but perhaps the fairest foot to put forward in reviewing a student production of Julius Caesar. The plays are long, the language is old, and sword-play is required. Despite all of this, as well as the frustrating lack of female roles, Shakespeare remains the bench-mark of doing theatre, the Mount Everest for budding thespians. And though some make it to the top of that mountain, flag in hand, others get left at base camp, sucking back oxygen. Dawson Theatre’s Caesar has got both kinds.
In this third-year class’ production, scenic elements and design choices, though intriguing, felt under-integrated: from the screen of static at the play’s opening, to the rapid-fire sound-bite montage of world leaders, to the Occupy Movement footage shown through intermission, to the wartime footage inserted to launch the battle scenes, and the often jarring use of projections throughout, the staging felt hodge-podge. The set appeared to offer a lot more versatility than was exploited, and the few movements it underwent felt somewhat lethargic and inelegant. It was actually the simple creation of a tent – through several actors holding a sheath of cloth to denote its perimeter – that worked best.
