Date: 18 March
Venue: National School of Drama

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”. This speech by William Shakespeare, from Julius Caesar, delivered by Marc Antony, has plagued me throughout my late school life. Memorising this piece of prose was not something that came to me easily as I would miss words, lines or context. In fact Shakespeare has never been an easy author and I have always tried to escape him.

What got us interested in the Italian production “Julius Caesar, Spared Parts” by group Societas Raffaelo Sanzio of Italy, truth be told, is the short duration of 45 minutes. Also, the play had English subtitles. The venue auditorium Chahumukh at NSD is a small cosy place and we had recently attended the 8th Theatre Olympics press meet there. So last Sunday evening, we lined up before Chahumukh and had to remove our shoes since it was floor seating. It should be interesting we thought!

It was a small affair – barely 50 people in the audience. But 50 people who were very serious about what was going to happen. It was an all white backdrop with spartan elements as stage. The play started with the actor Sergio Scarlatella inserting a camera inside his throat – glottis precisely. While he said his lines images from his vocal cords are projected on the white screen behind him. It did look a tad gross but managed to have 100% audience attention. We had not seen anything like this before!

He seemed to be happy that Caesar had been killed. In contrast, Mark Anthony, played by Maurizio Cerasoli, by way of the aforesaid speech “Friends, Romans, countrymen” mourned the killing of Caesar. It was perhaps this contrast that the play wanted to bring forth. Given the abstract nature of this adaptation, we shall never know for sure. Also, we shall never know why the series of bulbs were blown off creating absolute darkness in the room.

The killing of Ceasar, played by Gianni Plazzi was the only part that was clear and we loved the subtlety with which was depicted.

Given the host of ambiguities what did we like about this play? Well it is that – the ambiguities that we took home from this play. While the Italian script had English subtitles, much was left to imagination. And that was perhaps director Romeo Castelluci’s intent. He made us think. He made us take a renewed interest in Shakespeare’s works. This to us is the success of the production Julius Caesar Spared Parts.

What also made us think is that, except for the two young men who were from Delhi theatre circuit, the core cast was all elderly male actors from Italy. It was very encouraging to see them in the play. The Indian performing arts scene can borrow a leaf from their book. Afterall, what is this obsession for youth in our country that young people play elders on stage applying white dye on their hair and leaning on props such as walking stick or spectacles? Why not bring in diversity in the cast and in fact let aged people be part of performing arts? After all, experience is the best teacher we say.

All said and done, Julius Caesar Spared Parts is a Fun-Do play at many levels, definitely worthy of being part of Theatre Olympics.