The Ides of March are come

I want to talk about Julius Caesar for a minute, because I don't feel there's enough amateur dramaturgy on the web.

Caesar is Ms. K-M's favorite Shakespeare play. I saw it for the first time at Stratford with the FGRHS Drama Club, and really enjoyed it. I find that it's remarkably simple to understand, and because politics is so fluid, its easy to make the transition out of Roman or period dress and into modern adaptations. Put Antony in a black shirt, and you've got a ready made fascist.

First off, when discussing the play, you have to recognize that it literally ruins Shakespeare for life for many kids, because they are often given the play to read at an age where they don't understand what's going on. I once read a book about Shakespeare that said that this happens because Caesar is the last hold-out of Latin being taught in schools, that kids would read Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, and then read Shakespeare. But they don't teach Latin anymore, yet Caesar remains. Kids aren't able to understand what motivates Brutus, why Cassius is so devious, and how insidious Antony's most famous speech really is. They just watch Marlon Brando on a set and think they understand. (The best plays for young people are either Macbeth, because its rather simple to follow and features witches and curses, and Henry IV, part I, because there's lots of dirty jokes and rebelling against authority.)

When you read Dante, you see that Brutus, for many in medieval Europe held a special place of contempt. He betrayed his friend and ruler. But Shakespeare chose to explore the nobility in Brutus, and gives us two great counterbalances to him. Cassius is motivated not by some great belief in the virtue of the republic, but jealousy and contempt for Caesar himself. Antony, whose speech to the mourning crowds is obviously he best known part of the play, is a conniving political opportunist. (The most interesting part of the scene is this, Brutus has just made a passionate, but reasoned speech to the people defending the Senate's actions, and the crowd reacts in a most irrational way, they want to make Brutus king. Yet Antony does the opposite, and appeals to the very worst in the crowd, and is rewarded with a reasoned response that becomes a vengeful and murderous mob (just ask Cinna the poet). I feel that this is Shakespeare's critique, which Aristotle made as well, of Democracy, because it is always teetering on the edge of mob rule.)

Caesar himself doesn't dominate the play, but the persona does. We know that Caesar is a man because we hear Cassius talk about his near drowning, and we see him worry and do what Calphurnia wants him to do. Only when he's called upon to be "Caesar, destroyer of Pompey, the man who crossed the Rubicon" is he larger than life, or even confident.

Ok, that's it for that.

I have some good news. I have my interview scheduled for Good Friday at 2 pm, in Wolfeboro, NH, for the Granite State News. I will be leaving on Thursday, and I have tentative plans to stay the night at John Sellers' apartment and then proceed the rest of the way, through Connecticut and Massachusetts, the next day. We'll see about getting back.

Interesting fact, of the 1200 people or so who have attempted suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge, 2% have survived. Why this is interesting to me, I don't know, maybe it comes from being afraid of heights.

Yup