"Julius Caesar", Directed by Lance Marsh

Recently seeing Julius Caesar, directed by Lance Marsh, many strong moments stood out to me. One particular moment stayed with me, it made me saddened for the character at hand and made me curious as to what he would do with this pivotal moment. Julius Caesar (played by Austin Wyatt) is reigning over this land, and some being to conspire against him. His right hand man, Brutus (played by Blayne Childers), is one main conspirator against Caesar. Caesar is eventually murdered by many of who he thought were once his friends. The moment that is still with me is the agony Caesars friend, Marc Antony, (played by Andrew Tompkins) went through and the dramatic exit of Caesar’s soul leaving his body.

Leading up to that moment, after Caesar had been killed, Marc Antony reentered to see what had happened to him. He then anguishes over the body, realizing Caesar is dead and to make it out alive he must make friends with the killers that were left in the room. He goes through a sequence of shaking their bloody hands and pledging allegiance to Brutus. As all the characters leave, Antony is left alone with Caesar.

Antony rushes to his dead friends body and holds him, speaking out about the brutality and horror he had seen. The way the actor made the words flow naturally, as if he had been speaking the language his whole life, kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat to hear more. It was a moving speech, as he came near the end of it, Caesar slowly exited. The actor buckled his knees and moved out of his jacket like a snake slowly rolling up, creating an eerie look. He backed up into an exit with fog coming out of it, putting a final cap on his death. This direction taken in the show was moving, seeing his soul leaving his body in a sinister way, knowing that this would not be the end of his reign.

After experiencing Caesar’s soul leave, Antony kept his blazer lifted as if the body was still there, holding it the same as before. He solemnly folded the jacket with help from his servant, and then carried his “body” away, keeping a hefty weight to the clothing item, imitating that he was holding Caesar. He then takes his body to the “market place” in hopes to have many citizens mourn over Caesar and to turn their allegiance against Brutus.

This sequence was gut wrenching. Antony’s eloquent words, coupled with the dramatic exit of Caesar made it feel as if the brutality of his death was just the beginning. The actor who played Antony did a beautiful job to show the despair he was in, then showing the subtle change of determined revenge against Brutus and the killers he shook hands with. This was a pivotal moment in the show, Caesar’s death was large and gruesome, but the citizens were initially happy about it. With Antony wanting to avenge his death, we got to see the truth come out of each character, who they really believed in and who truly held the power.

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