- Roman Tragedies, and: Coriolanus, and: Julius Caesar, and: Antony and Cleopatra
Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s Roman Tragedies, part of the Barbican International Theatre Events (BITE) 2009 season, was a provocative, ambitious production conflating and reimagining Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra to create a chronicle of emerging populist Roman rule which traced public and private forms of ambition and power. Premiering in Amsterdam in 2007 and staged a year later at [End Page 347] the 2008 Avignon Festival, the London staging of the play was the Dutch company’s Barbican debut and its first production in London after a ten-year absence. The smart set-design, modern-dress costuming, and brilliant music complimented superb ensemble acting and a carefully crafted script to produce a deftly layered, visually stimulating study that vitalized the historical past by depicting, somewhat chaotically, political clashes of the present. Running time was approximately five-and-a-half hours with brief scene changes of three to ten minutes in lieu of an intermission. Actors delivered dialogue in Dutch.
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A sleek, visually impressive contemporary set design used the entire Barbican stage to create an open-plan modern conference center. The audience was invited to watch the action on the stage amongst barrel-shaded accent lights, mushroom-colored modular sofas and stuffed chairs, coffee tables, and office planters. Numerous plasma-screen televisions delivered live and recorded images. Additional common areas were located to the far sides of the set, including makeup and first aid stations, a Toneelgroep [End Page 348] Amsterdam information area, and a bar and café serving London Pride and Pad Thai, among other fare. A space was also dedicated to a computer that was connected to a red LED display that ran English surtitles underneath the screen above the proscenium. The audience was invited to type messages that were then transmitted to the display, which meant that a good amount of jocular commentary was delivered when the surtitles were not running. Such messages, often distracting and gratuitous, included the following: “Apparently all Dutch men are gorgeous. I’m moving to Amsterdam” and “Take off your shirt Aufidius.”
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The production favored the use of technology and media over the presentation...