Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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DRAMATICS - Julius Caesar Shakespeare returned to the stage of Pickering College this year when the Dramatic Club produced his Roman tragedy, JULIUS CAESARW, as their annual oifering. The plot of this play is the well known one concerning the attempts of an ambitious and rather unscrupulous man to capture the centre of political power in Rome, and the designs of his enemies, both great and small in character, to undo his schemes by assassinating him. This play is awkwardly constructed. The iirst act unfolds the plans of Caesar's opponents and depicts their jealousy and hatred of the man. The second act. in which the conspirators carry out their dastardly designs, is the high point of the drama, and was exceptionally well handled and portrayed by the actors. It was, indeed, a very real theatrical treat to witness the fine development of the characters of the main protagonists, especially Mark Anthony by Andy Newbery, as they swiftly moved to the consummation of their attempt on Caesar's life. The final act is a collection of messy little battle scenes which are very diflicult to piece together into anything which displays a sense of continuity. Perhaps the fact that this act is anti-climactic makes it difficult to hold the audience's attention. However, despite these limitations, the cast did carry it off and managed to give this act an intelligent interpretation. Naturally, it is the actors who must assume -the burden of developing the theme of the play and the unfolding of the characters of the main individuals. In this respect we were all rewarded. Robert Barnstaple showed us a Julius Caesar who was both a power politician and a man who had statesmanlike qualities. Barnstaple had good stage presence in portraying a noble, high born Caesar. Really, it is two other characters who hold the centre of attention in this play, Marcus Anthony, Nineteen

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Caesaris friend, and Marcus Brutus, another noble Roman who is also a friend of Caesar's, but who disapproves of Caesar's political ambitions. Brutus wants to save the pristine purity of the Republic which, however, was already shattered. Andy Newbery was a very dynamic and vital Anthony. This was particularly true of his great scene in the second act where he delivered the famous speech at Caesar's funeral by which he was able to sway the fickle mob to regard Caesar as their true friend and benefactor after Brutus had attempted to justify the plot. Newbery deftly portrayed the change in Anthony's character from the playboy and hero-worshipper to the shrewd, astute politician. It was an extremely fine piece of acting which will be long remembered. Marcus Brutus is really the tragic figure in the play. He was a Roman of noble birth and possessed of high ideals but who was gradually persuaded to join the conspirators by the clever rationalizations of the sly Cassius. Peter Stephens was able to show the tortuous mental debate Brutus went through before agreeing to the plan. But once having joined it, he led it to its conclusion with a singleness of purpose. Sometimes Stephens was slightly wooden on stage, not quite as flexible as he should have been. His diction was very clear and precise, as was that of the entire cast. He did fulfil the role very well. The role of Cassius calls for its player to be sly, secretive, persuasive and silver-tongued . He was a born plotter. It is difficult to judge Robert Grande's performance. One is bound to have a mixed reaction to it. He definitely was able to present a character of this type and yet, at times, he did seem to overplay his role. Nonetheless, his was an interesting piece of acting. Obviously he has talent but perhaps it needs more discipline to tone down his somewhat boisterous approach. Another of the conspirators was Casca, a flippant, cynical youth, who appears to be bored and indifferent to life but who, in reality, is passionately concerned about it. Allan Birmingham was excellent in this role, giving us a cool, hard-crusted, deliberative man. The feminine roles in this play are limited to the wives of Caesar and Brutus. Mary Baltutis played the role of Calpurnia, Caesar's wife, very well. Arlene Lund- gren as Portia, the wife of Brutus, also did a fine piece of acting. Her voice has a low, melodious quality which was charming to hear on stage. As always there were too many players to be given individual consideration but David James, Ross Dann, Ross Nodge, Doug Acheson, Larry Lentz, Peter Grant, Tom Bustinduy, and a host of others all helped the smooth flow of the presentation. Special mention should be made of the mob scenes which are so vital to this play. They were extremely well handled and gave contemporary atmosphere to the whole production. On the technical side one should give notice to the beautiful costumes which did much to add reality to the play. David Newcome and Les Snider did an excel- lent job with the lighting which was very effective, especially the thunder storm. The latter was very authentic. Mr. Bruce Lundgren is to be congratulated on his debut as a director on such a line performance from his group. -Judson D. Purdy. Twenty-one