BACKSTAGE

Off-Off Broadway /August 15, 2005/

Julius Caesar

Reviewed By Gwen Orel

Presented by ShakespeareNYC at the Lion Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC, Aug. 7-20.

Brutus (Geoffrey Dawe) is a fat cat good ol' boy in the American South, in which Rome is the capital city, in Beverly Bullock's insightful production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." It's a concept that brings the conspiracy drama close to home without ever becoming too strained or cheesy.

We first see Caesar on what appears to be an election stump; band music, Miss Mississippi, and a cheerful crowd accompany him. The poster of his face beneath a straw boater haunts the set throughout the rest of the play.

The conspirators' seemingly low-key plotting typifies the South's deceptively slow pace and makes the stabbing that follows all the more shocking. Bullock wisely avoids one-for-one parallels to American history, except for some hillbilly accents in the crowd scene (which

includes an unfortunate hanging rope) and jarring Dixie exit music.

John Montague as Caesar is a lovable but clearly megalomaniacal Huey Long type. His jock buddy Mark Antony (Marcus Dean Fuller) knows how to work a crowd, charm the ladies, and ingratiate himself, as any Southern football star must. He's fascinating and appalling by turns. Similarly, Susanna Harris' Portia and Ellen Seltz's Calpurnia are recognizable iron magnolias. Portia's line about the "vile contagion of the night" conjures up Southern mosquitoes. And playing Casca (Jeff Riebe, who doubles as Octavius Caesar) as a sly little dandy who likes to hear himself talk is particularly smart.

The setting is convincing all through the first half and much of the second, since the South is a place that, like Shakespeare's Rome, cherishes folklore (Lillian Small's soothsayer is faintly voodoo Creole), worships its heroes, sentimentalizes death, and often privileges nepotism and personality. The war scenes are less effective and the point of view harder to see. Nevertheless, this is a solid production of a complex play.