Play review – “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare

My favourite Shakespeare – powerful, exciting, stripped down, epic. So many brilliant moments: Cassius “seducing” Brutus; Caesar’s description of Cassius, the lean and hungry look; the shock of finding the two tribunes at the very beginning are dead; Brutus trying to rationalise his assassination of Caesar (killing someone the liberal way); Caesar’s talk about impending death; the tension of the assassination (will Caesar turn up, will Anthony be around, etc); Anthony lying to the killers in order to escape death then doing his soliloquy where he demands revenge; the stunning funeral sequence; Cinna the poet’s shocking death; Antony, Octavian and Lepidus deciding who will live and die;, followed bu Anthony’s dismissal of Lepidus; Cassius and Brutus argue over corruption (I never realised every time that Cassius advises something to Brutus and is ignored, it’s the wrong move: not killing Anthony, fighting at Philippi). Masterpiece.