Julius Caesar

This production of Julius Caesar was directed by Herbert Wise. It was his first and only contribution to the BBC Shakespeare series, and he was undoubtedly offered the job because of his superlative work directing the series "I Claudius." (Be sure also to track down his "The Woman in Black," a case study of how to scare the stuffing out of the audience with zero 'yuk' factor.)

Shakespeare makes different demands than Robert Graves or Nigel Kneale, however, and the director gives us a production more tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the television medium than most in the series. Only here do we get gigantic closeups of the actors' faces, which are sometimes not sufficiently photogenic for such intense scrutiny. On one of today's large-screen televisions, the effect can be overwhelming. Also, the soliloquies are almost all voice over on the soundtrack accompanying the face of a closed-mouth actor, with actual speech only on certain key passages. Either you find it more psychologically valid, or totally disruptive.

Thanks to Herbert Wise, the general interplay of emotion is considerably more precise than in many others of the BBC Shakespeare series. People talk, listen, act, react, think in the most detailed way, and the pace is always just. Though the political aspect of the drama is given its due, the emphasis here is on the interpersonal relationships.

The director is on record as saying that Shakespeare and television make a bad fit, and that no one up to this time has "cracked it." We can argue among ourselves whether he was right or not, but this show is different from all the others, and well worth watching.

Richard Pasco, Charles Gray, Keith Michell and Virginia McKenna all turn in well-rounded performances. Elizabeth Spriggs surprises as a warm and mobile Calpurnia. given her chatty Mistress Quickly in "Merry Wives," and memorable turns in TV adaptations of "Middlemarch," "Martin Chuzzlewit" and "Sense and Sensibility." David Collings' Cassius starts out lean and hungry, but goes mushy and hysterical a little early.

The play itself usually runs out of steam after Antony's oration, and here it is less of a problem than usual. The physical production by Tony Abbott is good, providing a more spacious Rome than that of the Coriolanus broadcast, and a somewhat flowery battlefield.

However, for those in search of an alternative, find on the Internet the audiocassette of the Caedmon Shakespeare Recording Society version of a generation earlier. Anthony Quayle is the Brutus, John Mills the Cassius, Alan Bates the Mark Antony and Sir Ralph Richardson as Julius Caesar. Even without visuals, everyone is one size larger, and I for one appreciate it.

William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Julius Caesar, has always been one of his lesser liked plays. It's predominantly an all male drama with only two supporting female characters like Calpurnia and Portia. It was still a male dominated world in Caesar's time where women are wives, nurses, maids, and mistresses. The BBC did a service in producing Shakespeare's plays faithfully to the word. I watch the English subtitles to get a better account of the story. The BBC has faithfully recreated the background scenes without much cost. There is no audience for a reaction or applause. The cast includes Charles in the title role. He is a fine Caesar. Richard Pasco and Keith Michell are also fine too. Unlike Shakespeare's other tragedies, this story is about politics, power, corruption, and greed.

Unlike the movies, this is a full version of the play, clocking in at a little under three hours. In performing the whole play, we see that Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare's best plays- not simply for the masterful rhetoric but for the characterisation. There are shades of Iago in the manipulative Cassius, eaten away by jealousy, and Brutus is a mixture of Macbeth and proto-Hamlet.

The BBC Complete Shakespeare series has been criticised for over-reverence to the text, emphasising educational value over dramatic value, and for its low budget productions. However, by presenting the full play, or at least, as full a version of the play than you are ever likely to get, they show subtleties and ambiguities that aren't present in streamlined versions.

This production's strength is that it does not offer us the big tragic hero. Initially, it looked as if Richard Pasco was going to play Brutus as the typical bland noble hero. However, once Brutus does the deed, Pasco presents him as a lonely man with a lot of power but the inability to do anything with it. This adds a wonderful irony to Brutus' earlier soliloquy musing on the extent of Caesar's ambition.

David Collings initially presents us with a villainous ambitious Cassius, but then Cassius slowly becomes a tragic figure, who does what he does out of love and admiration for Brutus. Admittedly it does come across as a bit stereotypically homosexual at times, but it is interesting to see Cassius as ultimately a good guy.

Charles Grey is a very toad-like Julius Caesar. Initially I disliked his performance; Caesar has generally been presented as a feeble man with a God-delusion. Grey's Caesar is very much a man of the people. He represents popular politics that are based around personalities (much like today's politics), which helped to contrast with Brutus' archaic concepts of honour. Keith Michell as Marc Antony also showed that he belonged to the school of politics that appeals to emotions rather than honour. Antony is probably the closest thing the play has to a hero, and even he looks villainous at one point, as he orders the death of his nephew.

I would urge people who think they know the play to watch this production, look past the skimpy togas, and discover a play rich in themes and characters. Julius Caesar is an eternally relevant play, more so than any other Shakespeare play.

This is a very slow but enjoyable and faithful version of Julius Caesar. It feels a bit 'sword and sandals' thanks to the now old and low budget TV production. But its focus is on faithfulness to the text and that it is. Richard Pasco is a brilliant Brutus, you totally feel along with him the battle in his conscience and what is right and wrong in the brutal world that he lives in. For a more modern and engaging version watch the National Theatre's 2018 version if you can get hold of it.

Heeding a warning and taking counsels is like a stitch in time which saves nine. If Ceaser had listened to the counsel of refraining on the ides of march (15th march) he would have saved his soul alive. On the other hand Cassius is a thoughtful and serious looking man who conspired with Brutus to assassinate the would be Roman ruler. His ambitious life and high standards stopped his ears from counsels(as the saying goes in a multitude of counselors there is safety) The evil that men do will always live after them as the good that men do will inter with their bones unto their children's children. For once swallow your pride and listen to reproves if perhaps you will be delivered. Cassius has very curious looks and which Caeser could have noticed.