This past Tuesday (aired July 12) Amanda Kellock spoke with Jeffrey Mackie about this year’s production of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Their conversation begins with a quick exploration of the role of tragedies in Shakespeare-in-the-Park’s production history, and leads into a discussion of the gender politics of the play, the production, and audience response. Kellock notes that the all-female cast settled into, “playing character rather than playing gender,” and that both players and play look towards answering the question: “how do you live in your own body?”
Discussing the direction and overarching concept of the play, Kellock notes that Julius Caesar is a play that ultimately has neither villains nor heroes, a moral ambiguity complicated by repeated appeals to patriotism – a concept which is fraught in our own contemporary society…
From The Morning After‘s first hour, you can listen to the interview below (the “Literary Review” segment begins at the 35:02 time-mark).