Julius Caesar • 2013 - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

1900s
continued
2000s
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WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
As their world collapses around them, they need each other as never before, and any hint of betrayal
hurts deeply. Shakespeare’s understanding of a society in crisis includes not just the political issues,
the slogans, the violence of riot and battle; it includes the private dramas that are played out in the
midst of great events, shaping those events and being shaped by them. This may be one reason why
we still recognize Shakespeare’s portrayal of a long-dead world: he sees the drama acted out not by
abstract historical forces but by people.
—alexanDer leGGaTT, sCholar, 1990
The republican ideal that Cassius evokes to seduce Brutus into opposing Caesar, and that Brutus
uses to justify murder, is closer to myth than to history.
—Coppelia kahn, proFessor, 1992
Abraham Lincoln, after emancipating the slaves, observed he had defeated the fear of death by
entering the memory of future generations. They all wanted this—Caesar and Brutus and Cassius,
Churchill and Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. And they all received
some measure of what they wanted.
—riCharD GooDWin, speeCh WriTer, 2000
Shakespeare has character after character in Julius Caesar reject social expectations and open an
alternative way of being, in which bleeding bodies are penetrated by already bloody swords.
—Daniel Juan Gil, auThor, 2007
...ON CHARACTER
Caesar died at the age of 56, surviving Pompey by not much more than four years. All his life he
ran such great risks pursuing, and finally attaining, power and rule, but he reaped from them no fruit
but only the name and an invidious fame among the citizens. Still, his great genius that had watched
over him all his life followed him after death as an avenger of his murder, driving and tracking down
his slayers over land and sea till no one of them was left, and pursuing any who had a hand in the
deed or participated in the plot.
—pluTarCh, hisTorian, 46-120 aD
Brutus for his virtue and valiantness was well-beloved of the people, esteemed of noblemen, and
hated of no man, not so much as his enemies, because he was a marvelous lowly and gentle person,
noble minded, and would never yield to any wrong or injustice, the which was the chiefest cause of
his fame, and of his rising.
—pluTarCh, hisTorian, 46-120 aD
So, when the murderers brought [Antony] Cicero’s head and hand cut off, he beheld them a long
time with great joy and laughed heartily...Then, when he had taken his pleasure of the sight of them,
he caused them to be set up in an open place, over the pulpit for orations, showing himself...a cruel
man and unworthy of the office and authority he bore.
—pluTarCh, hisTorian, 46-120 aD
[Caesar] is generally described as having been tall, fair-complexioned, shapely of limb, and rather full
in the face with lively dark eyes. He enjoyed good health, except that toward the end he was subject
to fainting spells and nightmares. Twice during his campaigns he suffered epileptic fits. He was rather
fastidious in the care of his person...He was also chagrined by his baldness...That is why he adopted
the habit of combing what hair he had left forward from the crown of his head, and of all the honors
voted him by the Senate and people there was none he received and made use of more gladly than
the privilege of wearing a laurel wreath at all times and places.
—sueTonius, hisTorian, 93-138 aD
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