Review: JULIUS CAESAR at Independent Shakespeare Company in Griffith Park

While it’s by no means a requirement, productions of Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR benefit from a throng, either a large cast, a packed audience or – if the gods are smiling – both to bring some noise and weight to a play that is all about the dangerous whims of the masses. Sure, you can successfully stage CAESAR as a walled-in chamber piece, and many have. But when the stirred-up populace of Rome are egging on Caesar to accept his crown, roaring their confirmation that bloody-handed Brutus was justified or being whipped into a tide-turning frenzy by Marc Anthony, well, it’s thrilling to become swept away by big energy.

Crowds, Independent Shakespeare Company reliably has, particularly since the company is back in its traditional stomping grounds outside the old L.A. Zoo in Griffith Park. After a couple of seasons in which COVID and the construction of a new stage forced them into a different part of the park, ISC is back at the old Zoo and producing its two-play Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival – free of charge - to Angelenos of all stripes. Consistently producing work of a very high quality in an absolutely bucolic setting for audiences both who can afford to pay for live theater and for those who can’t, ISC is a city treasure, a highlight of every summer.

Their choice of CAESAR as a summer opener is essentially a remount of a 2019 ISC production at the company’s studio space in Atwater Village. In taking the production outdoors, director David Melville (who also plays the title role) has reassembled some of the same members of the production team, most notably video designer Janet Le whose two video screens go a long way to getting the crowd involved. While it took some time for the opening night crowd to get into the rhythm of things, ultimately mission was accomplished. Julius Caesar, his assassins and his avengers had their populi. The fickle crowd roared and incited with every changing political whim.  Atmosphere, this CAESAR has aplenty.

What Melville’s production does not have this time, unfortunately, is particularly strong acting. Players in several key roles felt miscast, out of synch with their own characters, with fellow players or, in some cases, both. As a result, the production is cleanly-paced, has a take, knows where it wants to go and how to get there, but is not great at making us emotionally invest.

The aforementioned video screens are used as prompts, flashing messages urging us to chant, scream or otherwise reply to oratorical call-outs. Serving as our emcee, Cinna the Poet (played with plenty of charisma by Kelvin Morales) warns us that we will be called upon to do our duty. And we are, and do.

Although the text doesn’t offer a ton of laughs, ISC goes for them anyway. Before he ultimately strikes the first blow, Richard Azurdia’s Casca is a mincing fan-fluttering gossip, not necessarily the sort one would expect to throw in with murderers. In the title role, Melville depicts a Caesar who may indeed be “constant as the northern star,” but who can also undercut a pronouncement that he will not go to the capital with a conspiratorial explanation of his reasons that can draw a giggle. In these moments or when his Caesar is afraid of eerie pronouncements or loud noises, Melville is actually quite funny. But the actor is a superb comedian. The man can’t help it, and boy do we miss his presence once Caesar is dispatched. 

Deadly serious and bitter to the point of being almost Iago-esque is Sabra Williams’ Cassius, to the point where one wonders why anybody would have anything to do with the men. As Brutus, William Elsman doesn’t come across as particularly noble or ignoble, more like a vaguely conflicted guy who is buffeted by a current of sleazy friends and bad decisions. Although the crowd stuff is a nice and gets us going, this CAESAR could benefit from a steadier northern star, someone in whose actions we feel the bitterness of tragic downfall or in whose heroism, we experience the hope for a brighter future.

It doesn’t come, alas, from Elsman, nor from Hiwa Chow Elms's Marc Antony who, on opening night, felt like she was working awfully hard to get everyone to join the chorus of calling the conspirators “honorable men” during Caesar’s eulogy. Fiery, Elms mist certainly is, and that’s a production hallmark. For several of the performers, the default appears to be when in doubt, go for the gusto. Jacqueline Misaye’s Portia is so unhinged during her single scene trying to get Brutus to unburden himself and come back to bed that you just know things aren’t going to turn out well for that character.

The text has been judiciously trimmed allowing this CAESAR to clock in at slightly over two hours, and the production moves even when it doesn’t engage.  Bottom line: a night in the park with the ISC is rarely a night badly spent, but come prepared to roar. Given its other deficiencies, this production needs the noise.

JULIUS CAESAR plays through July 30 in Griffith Park. 

Photo of Hiwa Chow Elms and David Melville by Grettel Cortes

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