Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Jan 17: Continuing the season for William Shakespeare’s plays in the winter capital, ‘The Performers’ presented ‘Julius Caesar’, as seventh production of ongoing Annual Drama Festival organized by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, at Government College for Women auditorium, here today.
The Hindi translation of Julius Caesar by Ashok Grover and R L Tulli and directed by Vijay Goswami was a successful performance keeping in mind challenges of staging Shakespearean dramas with handicap of almost negligible infrastructure in the auditorium.
Play’s main protagonist is Julius Caesar, highly ambitious leader in Rome in 44 BCE, whose sole aim is to become dictator. Soothsayer’s prophecy comes true and he is assassinated due to plotting of Marcus Brutus and Cassius. Friend of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, provides the famous funeral oration:”Friends, Romans, and countrymen…”. Brutus and Cassius meet their inevitable defeat which plunges the country into civil war.
The plot outlines power struggle among Rome’s political leaders and events leading up to Caesar’s assassination. It is believed that Shakespeare used story of Caesar to comment on concentration of power under reign of Elizabeth I, Queen of England at the time the play was written and first performed.
The play explores concepts of fate and free will and the conflict main characters experience as they juggle their private and public lives as politicians. The story also explores notions of friendship, ambition, rivalry and betrayal. The play much like today’s political world of ours overtaken by media, examines role of speech to inspire, persuade and manipulate individuals and wider public.
Today’s production was marked with minimal use of sets and authentic costumes. While the performances of actors in roles of Caesar, Brutus, Mark Antony and Cassius, did succeed in creating dramatic situations that are acknowledged highlights of play. But the background score many a times proved to be distraction due to its pitch and sudden and miscued appearance.
Cast of play included Manoj Bhat as Caesar, Balwinder as Brutus, Rohitashiv as Mark Antony, Vijay Goswami as Casca, Rohit Verma as Cassius, Rajni Bhatti as Portia, Shama Choudhary as Calpurnia, Anmol Bakaya as Octavius, Ashok Vinay as Decius/Strabo, Sheel Manhas as Luccilius/Cisro, Pradeep Sharma as Soothsayer/Messala, Devinder Sharma as Cinna-2/Dordanius, Vijay Sharma as Cinna, Rohit Verma as Cassius. Those who acted as various other characters in play included, Rajni Bhatti, Pramod Choudhary, Akshay Koul, Sugandhi, Mukesh Bawa, Vikram Rajwal, Harkeerat, and Kuldeep Mehra.
After a two-day break, next play of the festival staged on January 20, would be Naqaib Rangmanch’s Kashmiri play ‘Faraz’, directed by Somnath.
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