British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database
Julius Caesar (2009): Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol
PRINCIPAL CAST: Simon Armstrong (Julius Caesar); Clive Hayward (Cassius); Byron Mondahl (Octavius Caesar); Alun Raglan (Mark Antony); Leo Wringer (Brutus).
This production ran from 12 February - 21 March 2009.
"What saps the power of this play is always the character of Brutus....So if a production is to succeed it must indicate some quality we can respect in this man, and while Andrew Hilton's direction is excellent in so many ways, it allows a wobble to enter in here. Leo Wringer has done fine work for Hilton in the past, and in the tension of his posture his Brutus certainly suggests a man unused to mingling with ordinary folk. But except during the tender scenes with his exhausted servant he doesn't convey what impels other men to love and venerate him." ~ Jeremy Kingston, The Times, 23 February 2009, in Theatre Record 2009, Issue 4
"Andrew Hilton's revival, with its olive green and black Puritan-style costumes, sets the action firmly in an early 17th-century London of shadows and bloody acts. But there is something about its speed and leanness that makes this production seem very modern, a parable for our own interventionist age. This is a racy, intelligent thriller shot through with a sardonic humour that constantly pricks at the stated ambitions of men and bursts the balloon of ideology." ~ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 21 February 2009, in Theatre Record 2009, Issue 4
"Leo Wringer is noble and thoughtful, but he doesn't tackle Brutus's agonies of treachery." ~ John Peter, Sunday Times, 8 February 2009, in Theatre Record 2009, Issue 4
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