April 1, 2012
Brad - A
Chelsea - B-
So! After our excursion to Washington and Lee (which Brad won't let me talk about...I have no idea why, I think I am an amazing critic and I have important opinions about that one!) we spent our Sunday with a much closer trip. First, we got the pleasure of seeing these cuties!
It was really great to have some visitors to so we could play tourist in our town. After seeing every dinosaur bone in the world we heading to Fairfax about 20 minutes away to see Caesar. It was a traveling show from a company in NYC so we were really excited for it to be great! It was at the George Mason Preforming Arts Center which is an impressive theater.
As you can see it was set in modern day and used a bunch of backgrounds of the capital building and Washington Monument. The set was a minimal with a set up of 8 TV screens that were constantly changing backgrounds. For a traveling show that seems like a great idea. They could change places and moods without any movements of set. We tried to sneak a pic but Brad is not the best secret agent photographer.
Here the plot, and yes, I know we all already know this one:
Caesar has returned for war and is gaining public support. All of his senators conspire to overthrow him and spend the first half convincing his most loyal follower, Brutus, to be part of their conspiracy and kill the brute! Caesars wife has a dream that something horrible is going to happen to him and tried to convince him to stay home. It almost works but then like most Shakespeare plays he calls her a silly woman and heads to work. He is also warned by a soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March." I'm pretty sure that term was stolen from the Ryan Gosling movie. He is brutally murdered by a whole slew of senators including the conflicted Brutus. Mark Antony is not involved and is disgusted with what is done. He gives an AWESOME speech at Caesars funeral to rally a rebellion of the people against those who killed Caesar. A war breaks out and the chaos of Rome ensues!
Story: timeless, so well written. Production: not so much. Brad and I left thinking that the company may have taken the easy way out. They played up the politics and had the cast in the slick modern suits of "The Hill" but it just didn't have that kick it needed. The play lends itself so much to modern and political that it was just kind of predictable. The cast was amazing and it was good but it just didn't grip us. The Antony speech is so good, everyone should go read it out loud to themselves. Yep, that was a lame suggestion but hey, you may be that bored some Tuesday night. The dialogue was also a bit too grandiose for my taste. I'm pretty sure one of them was channeling William Shatner.
But, all in all. It was good. I see why Shakespeare (cough, De Vere) is a master. This had master writing all up in it!
I also tried to take a picture without multiple chins but that did not work out in my favor.
We also explored and Brad made me take yet another picture with a statue
Chels
Play photos from Fairfax Station Review
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