Barbican: Roman Tragedies

This is a theatre review for a show I went to see at the end of November.

When I went to see The Roman Tragedies, all I knew is that it was Shakespeare, it was in Dutch, and that I would be there for six hours. Normally, this is not my ideal theatre-going experience, but I trudged my way down to The Barbican to go and have a look for myself. What I didn’t expect was a vibrant and engaging theatre experience that kept me entertained and invested from the moment I stepped into the theatre until I laid my head on my pillow long after the performance was over.

Shakespeare’s Roman tragedies; Coriolanus, Julius Caesear, and Antony and Cleopatra have been put together by Ivo Van Hove and his team from Toneelgroep Amsterdam to form this theatre piece. The plays run roughly chronologically through Roman political historyand have compressed, contemporized and put into a concise, coherent package that even those who do not know Shakespeare will be fascinated by.

The sordid details of the political intrigues, romantic struggles, hard-fought wars, pained deaths and complex lives of the leaders of Rome are put into a modern-day political arena. The production puts the plays into context with the current political schema that is resonant, beautiful, and unapologetically real.

Van Hove has made a world in which the audience becomes the unspeaking citizens of Rome, and as an audience we are implicated in the political drama. There are many couches and chairs upon the stage that the audience is invited to occupy, sharing the stage with the actors. The almost operatic orchestration of actors, audience, music, cameras, and television brought to life a world that enthralled and engaged the audience for the entire performance.

The acting was superb, and with arguably the best actors that the Netherlands have to offer, why wouldn’t it be? The best bit of the play is Antony and Cleopatra, during which I could not tear my eyes from the stage. Though the multimedia, subtitles, live music and refreshments were more than enough to keep me involved during the rest.

One memorable moment during Julius Caesar, I had gone on stage to get a sandwich and some wine and was enjoying watching the actors up close. What I didn’t realize is that the ‘war’ was about to commence, and when it did, I was settled a bit too close to the large drums and strobe lights for comfort. But then again, war isn’t supposed to be comfortable, is it.

The multimedia aspect of the play added another dimension to the performance. Having scattered television screens filled with cinematic images that the cameras captured, along with English subtitles gave a rounded, far-reaching, and decidedly mechanized aspect to the otherwise vibrantly alive theatre experience.

While some of the political points were lost on me over the six-hour play, some things were lost in translation, and not all aspects were scintillating or cohesive, the performance that Toneelgroep Amsterdam puts forth in Roman Tragedies is a fantastic theatre experience that is not to be missed.