Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

...lend me a good production!

So last night, I dragged my friend Daniel to the Houston Shakespeare Festival to see a production of "Julius Caesar". Every summer, they put on two plays, very professionally done (with equity actors and everything), at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. April didn't want to go (her words were, "Heat, bugs and Shakespeare: my idea of hell"), so I convinced Daniel to accompany me. I was slightly disappointed.

I know the play very well (having taught it a couple of times), but I've never seen a live production. I have to admit, I was daydreaming during the production. First of all, the director chose to modernize the dress to suits and cammoflauge. Some Shakespeare plays modernize very well, but I wanted to see the togas. Then the director cut a lot out - the play ran just under two hours - and if I didn't know the play very well, I might've been confused. Things seemed to happen too quickly, and didn't flow as well. Finally, I wasn't too keen on some of the actors' decisions. I felt that Portia was too naggy and Antony's voice was too high pitched and Cassius was too active. I thought Portia could've been stronger, Antony a bit deeper and Cassius a bit calmer (calm villains sometimes work better than hyper villains).

I did like the music, the sound, the set - very minimalistic with a good usage of various planes and stairs - and I enjoyed the actor who played Brutus. And the weather was nice with only minimal bugs (although two ninja junebugs dive-bombed my head and scared the daylights out of me both times).

Tonight's perfomance is "Cymbaline," which is a play that I am completely unfamiliar with - I've never seen it nor read it. I barely know the plot. So I migh enjoy this one better.

Time to organize my apartment!

Cheers!