Based on real events of the history of ancient Rome, William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” (1599) was one of the first plays by Shakespeare produced in the Globe Theatre in London, which later received a large variety of stage and film interpretations. It is the first production of the play on the Lithuanian stage.

The point of departure in Artūras Areima’s production is creating the theory of pseudo-panic. Through parody and satire the director analyses the situation in which people driven by absurd intentions decide that it is time to depose somebody only because they do not like him. Having created a pseudo-plot, they involve in it the surrounding people.

At the center of attention is a generation of politicians ruled by absurd, whose dominant feature is idling and imitation of actions. The authorities watch the horse races and talk profusely, but remain are totally disinterested in the real life of the state. The characters of the play live in an imaginary reality.

In the director’s words, “It is a senseless drama. A paradoxical invasion, the formation of a void, nonsense, a political concoction, where the political essence becomes a pseudo entity that turns into an instrument of play. We do not seek to formulate any tangible ideas or logical meanings. The production is based on a trick, nuisance, play of logic, and ‘the aesthetics of strangeness’. This dramatic nonsense aims to express an opposition to certain dramatic, linguistic, spatial, and ethical conventions, which are considered a norm or ‘common sense’”.

The production “Julius Caesar” addresses the eternal topic of political power, and the realia described by Shakespeare can be easily recognized in our days.

Set designer
Artūras Areima

Composer
Paulius Ignatavičius

Cast
Tomas Stirna, Tadas Gryn, Tomas Rinkūnas, Daumantas Ciunis, Tomas Kliukas, Paulius Ignatavičius

Premiere
2012 September 14

Reviews
Rūta Oginskaitė
Monika Malinauskaitė
Julijus Lozoraitis