Stratford today; reviews tomorrow.
Well, it’s tomorrow, and as predicted I am tired. So: two brief reviews. It’s a good thing I am not a critic because I don’t have to go into detail. Julius Caesar is not my favourite Shakespeare play but not my least well liked, either. Both my companion and I had memories of the Wayne-Shuster send-up of the play. Surely everyone remembers Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster?
Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s, first as a live act, then on radio, then as part of The Army Show that entertained troops in Europe during World War II, and then on both Canadian and American television. Wik[pedia
I’ll have a dry Martinus.
You mean Martini.
When I want two I’ll ask for them.
They were on the Ed Sullivan Show 67 times, more than any other act.
They came to Winnipeg when we were still there and Bill and I took them out for an after-theatre supper. We went to a Salisbury House and they had ‘nips” (aka hamburgers). The staff of the place knocked themselves out serving the famous pair. They were household names.
Anyway…
The best-remembered line was “I told him, Julie, don’t go!’, repeated naggingly often by another Canadian comedian, Sylvia Lennick (1915-2009), playing Calpurnia, Julius Caesar’s wife. I guess any of us who ever heard that line thinks of it whenever we see the play, It’s a fond memory. I don’t think this production of the play will be.
I was looking forward to it, another instance of the Stratford Season”s female actors taking over male roles (many more in this production). This time Seana McKenna, who did a brilliant job as Richard III a few seasons ago, stepped into Caesar’s toga.She had a Roman haircut and she looked great. But she sounded to me like a little old Italian man, not effective. She loomed as a wonderful ghost, though, not menacingly but judgementally and with great presence. I liked Brutus, played by Jonathan Goad, and Mark Antony, played by Michelle Giroux, was smoothly ironic in her speech to the crowd (“and Brutus is an honourable man”).
That’s enough. I’ll do Napoli Millionari tomorrow.