Julius Caesar--Sheffield

Isn't ANYONE seeing this?

I love the Crucible, it's my local and I've been going since the mid 90s. The auditorium looks really different - I thought the set was excellent. I found the production excellent - I absolutely loved how they staged it. It felt like a really tense thriller that built to what I felt was terrifying by the interval. The way the mob was manipulated and then rampaged through the theatre was really scary! My friend said she thought it was a bit too frantic and tense, with no light and shade, and I suppose I can see her point, but I liked how tense I was by the interval. (She said the second half was better).

The highlight for me was how beautifully Sam West speaks the verse. Every single word made perfect sense - clear as a bell even when he whispered, meaning crystal clear the whole time, and the words sounded as if he was making them up as he went along. I absolutely love when someone makes Shakespeare sound like that.

When it ended I felt exhausted and thought it was excellent, but that I couldn't see it again. A week on, I'm now thinking perhaps I should squeeze in another visit...

I think for me, it felt so scary because it felt so possible - the mob violence, the bit with Cinna-the-Poet (omg!), the executions... urgh. It was really nice to see so many women too. The actual female parts are rubbish! Caesar's wife with her crazy I-had-a-dream scene, and Brutus's wife self harming... they'd have been very disappointing if they were the only women. The parts that they switched to female ones were so much better.  (I don't mean anything against the actors there, just that the parts... oh dear.)