Rome has always been a community of political ideals in the Western world.
After the destruction of Western Rome by the barbarians, Byzantium, the Holy Roman Empire, Moscow, the Principality of Kiev, and the United States of the North American continent, "inheriting the Roman Taoist system" became the glory and splendor most desired by many powerful countries.
In political science and art, the United States is often ridiculed by scholars and artists as the "New Rome" by scholars and artists because of its bicameral system, multi-ethnic power, and global hegemony.
And this time, the Tower Bridge Theatre's Shakespeare play "Julius Caesar", which interprets the assassination of Caesar during the Roman Republic with modern scenes and immersion theaters, is a wonderful intertextual:
The four dimensions of Roman history and the memories of later generations, Shakespeare's plays, contemporary political realities and the innovative practices of contemporary theater meet fatally and inevitably in this work.
Stills from Julius Caesar, the same below
Julius Caesar is the second production of the Tower Bridge Theatre, former artistic director of the National Theatre and director Nicholas Sitner, and the second Shakespeare play by Nicholas Sitner (the last was Othello by the National Theatre of England).
Nicholas Hitner's directing style is most evident in his fascination with stage space cutting and multi-layered changes – in Othello, multiple cubes enclosed like containers form various scenes, which are changed in the process of "soldiers" "pushing boxes";
Julius Caesar, on the other hand, is known as an "immersion" theater: the audience can not only buy a normal audience seat to watch, but also buy a total of 250 infield "standing tickets" like a rock music festival, and this standing ticket is standing on a circular stage, and the actors and sets appear at your side.
The most notable thing about the Tower Bridge theatre version of Julius Caesar is the chemistry between the creativity of this "immersion" theater and The directorial style of Hitner's multi-layered cutting stage, and the audience's "immersion" experience in the infield.
The original game opens with Roman citizens taking to the streets to celebrate Caesar's victory in the war, which is interpreted as a victory celebration held by Caesar, who has won another general election. A small high stage appeared on the stage, hanging Caesar's presidential campaign slogan "Do this", a rock band performed here, the actors mixed in the audience, playing Caesar's supporters, waving the red Roman family emblem flag, holding aloft the portrait of the president in Caesar in a suit; the band performance ended, wearing a running mate with his name stamped on it, Vice President Mark Anthony came out to host, and finally in the cheers of everyone, President Caesar wore a red baseball cap and an American worker jacket. Wearing a bright red collar, he took him to the podium...
Audiences familiar with American politics can be said to be very familiar with these scenes.
Next, Caesar entered the Senate as arch-consul, and the stage was transformed into a narrow corridor with the red Archon's throne at the end, and the audience stood on either side of the corridor, this time becoming the senators of the Senate—like British parliamentarians lined up on either side.
In the roaring rock music, the huge flag with The family emblem of Caesar fell from the sky to cover all the audiences, the bright red background, the central emblem of the flag design seemed to be a metaphor for the fascist system that had died, the assassination team carrying pistols also stood with the audience, and suddenly at the sound of an order, all rushed up the corridor...
The previous infield "submerged audience" played the role of a Roman citizen and a senator of the Senate, while in the war scene between Brutus and Octavian, the audience really became part of the fear brought by the scene, becoming a refugee slaughtered in the war:
In the darkness, the constant strobe, the smoke of gunfire, the deafening metal music, the great discomfort surrounded by machine guns and explosions, the actors push different sets through the stage, creating danger and chaos around the audience, moving constantly as the battle lines in the plot are constantly moved, until finally, all the sets and performance platforms are re-stacked together, Octavian goes to the top, declaring that he has become the new ruler, and the audience finally settles down and becomes a part of rome's rule again.
With such a design, the director has been questioned about the incompleteness of the audience's "immersion".
First, the audience is not fully integrated into the plot and actors.
In almost all of brutus's assassination team scenes, the audience plays nothing, they become ordinary spectators standing, the only advantage is the distance from the actors, they can "peek" at Brutus's choices, private life and the gradual birth of conspiracies.
Secondly, because of the constantly cut sets and the constantly moving and changing stages, the audience does not have a close connection with the world built by the whole stage (this is the biggest difference between this play and the "full immersion" type of drama such as "Sleepless Nights"), but is only arranged by the director to play various roles from time to time, where the audience's will is not valued, and the audience's sense of participation is lost due to the lack of interactivity.
But in fact, the "semi-immersion" caused by these factors may also be the cautious attitude of the British theatre to the innovative elements of the stage: innovation should serve the text.
The idea of "immersing" the audience is itself meant to make the audience play a role—not just to intuitively play the role of Roman citizens, conspirators, senate members, and war refugees, but to let the audience play a seemingly very empty, but the most powerful and complete collection: the people.
In Shakespeare's Roman historical plays, the "people" often played a less glamorous role.
For example, in Corinaranos, the People of Rome is almost synonymous with ignorance, stupidity, and mobs. In "Julius Caesar", the position of the "people" who is repeatedly teased, deceived, and instigated by politicians is like the "audience" under the stage - this is the textual fit that director Hitner found, that is, the role of the "bystander" in "Julius Caesar" in which the citizens of Rome are manipulated and directed by political figures at will and have no political participation, and in the theatrical performance, the audience cannot participate in the plot, and can only be pinched by the actor's performance and stimulated by the emotions. And this sense of alienation is manifested in a contradictory situation that puts the audience into "immersion" but does not let the audience "immerse" at all times.
The opening Kaiser's winning campaign rally, the audience has just entered the theater, facing the warm-up of the rock band on the stage, and has not yet entered the state. But at the same time, the indulgence and enthusiasm of the actors waving the campaign flag around them made the drama of audience and actors coexisting from the beginning alienated from the beginning — the estrangement between the people and the politicians was innate.
Next, whether it is Brutus's speech or Mark Anthony's speech, the audience stands on the stage, although they have their own ideas and opinions, but only the actors have lines: they stand together, but they do not have the same rights, and the audience watches as the actors with lines loudly express, lead public opinion, and arbitrarily summarize the emotions of the crowd, and although they are in it, they are always a bystander, both present and not present.
So, when did this political farce of power and profit have the most participation as the audience of the "people"?
The answer is that in the midst of war, the "people" are really drawn into it, frightened, threatened, perceived the horrors of the environment, and really blended into the atmosphere: this means that they become ants.
That is to say, the most daring thing about the Tower Bridge Theater version of "Julius Caesar" is to nakedly tear open this new Roman illusion, exposing the cruel reality to all the audiences who think that they can walk into the infield and think that their voices can be heard.
All this has nothing to do with the morality and justice of political figures, and the director, in his processing, skillfully transforms the ambiguity of Shakespeare's original character due to his lack of writing ability into a righteous and noble side of everyone, whether it is Caesar, who is a perfect and close to the people, not a tyrannical dictator, Brutus, a Kantian moralist, or Antony who is despicable but ambitious, Octavian, who is arrogant and powerful, and even Cassius, who is bent on revenge, who seems to be a villain but noble to die.
All this has nothing to do with good and evil, just as Brutus said that he loved Caesar immensely, just as Antony always acknowledged that Brutus was a noble and great figure, and while satisfying our fantasies about Roman characters and the desire to pay homage to the tragedy of the fate of ancient Greek drama, it also aggravated the despair and irreparability of the situation even more harshly: The term "fascist" itself originated in Rome, originally referring to the honor guard walking behind the archons with weapons, and extended to the worship of authority.
The dream of a new Rome has always had nothing to do with the people, but not because the rulers have no people in mind, but simply because politics itself has nothing to do with the people.
Caesar fell, Brutus fell, but Octavian still stood, rising in a multicolored balloon, and this time no one could raise objections.
In this sense, the Tower Bridge Theatre edition pulls the story to the modern Juris Caesar, expressing fascism that is eternal at all times, and the impossibility of true freedom that time has not been able to change.
The Tower Bridge Theatre, director Hitner and all the actors sublimated shakespeare's historical play, creating it into a modern political fable of universal significance that transcends time and gives us eternal discussion value:
Maybe the United States can't be called "New Rome" by one-to-one correspondence, but whether we buy a stand ticket that can only be watched, or an infield ticket that can stand at zero distance with the actors, we will always be "semi-immersed" with the world, and we can only peep, watch and be silent.
The huge red cloth blindfolded all eyes and the sky.