Sir Nicholas Hytner’s modern-dress production of Julius Caesar majors on the mob scenes.
It presents Caesar as a Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn figure, with leather jacket, glad-handing of the throng and an adoring sea of slogans and red flags.
Sir Nicholas has ripped the stalls seats out of his new Bridge Theatre (just next to London’s Tower Bridge) and much of the audience stands in a black pit, milling hither and thither while Caesar and Mark Antony and Brutus and Octavius try to win their support from raised platforms.
This is a forcefully theatrical and noisy production. It opens with a rock band to whip up the right mood of communal frenzy.
One of the best moments is when an enormous red drape is passed over the heads of the groundlings and the stage managers use that rippling cover to wheel in a high red leather throne on which Caesar will recline in dictatorial manner. Some of the sound effects during the play’s interminable battle scenes are loud enough to make you jump in your seat, if you have one.
