Tangle Theatre Company end their tour of Julius Caesar at the Omnibus Theatre this week. It’s a truncated adaptation including African storytelling and original music.
It contains two striking professional debut performances from Samya De Meo as Cassius/Portia/Calpurnia and Roland Royal III as Julius Caesar. Remiel Farai is a stoic soldier Brutus, while Samater Ahmed steps in, script in hand, as a mesmerising Mark Antony.
The African aspects of this Julius Caesar are embodied by artist/poet Yaw Osafo-Kantanka (aka King Yaw) who offers comment, power, and intensity to the production.
He’s the soothsayer warning of the Ides of March, the narrative voice representing the people of Rome, and the barbaric personification of the brutality that makes an ‘honourable man’ kill.
Another audience member tells me that the originally billed Mark Antony, John Pfumojena, who acted as both storytelling consultant and composer, performed the music live earlier in the run.
Now, the pulsing melodies are pre-recorded but still potent and passionate additions to the story. By trimming peripheral characters from the text (apart from Cinna the poet) the focus is squarely on a Cassius and Brutus who aim too high and too wide.
Julius Caesar is a play that can flourish in paired-down format, as Rag and Bone Theatre proved earlier this year. In Tangle’s production, the tension, audience participation – fired up in the interval, we become the crowd – and Colin Falconer’s set of mirrors, circle of changing light, and copper platform offer both scale and intimacy.
By reducing a complex plot with 40 characters to a cast of 5 playing 9, writer/director Anna Coombs has drilled down to the political and personal intrigues at the play’s heart. We are both outside and inside this changing face of Rome.
I’m giving this four stars for its ambition, imagination, and interpretation.
You have until 15 Nov to catch this impressive Julius Caesar at the Omnibus, Clapham (£18-£20) – tickets here.
Image credit: Stuart Martin