Preview
JULIUS CAESAR
Shakespeare in the Park
Starring David Trimble, Trevor Leigh, Scott McAdam and Ryland Alexander
Directed by Martin Fishman
Runs July 2 to August 21
Prince’s Island Park
Warm nights, cool grass and political intrigue – hundreds of years and thousands of kilometres from Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre, the Bard’s works return to the open air with Calgary’s Shakespeare in the Park.
Now celebrating its 17th year, Mount Royal College’s annual summer theatre ritual in Prince’s Island Park offers Shakespearean works a beautiful venue that’s as accessible as their original open-air stage and probably more comfortable. While the groundlings of the Bard’s day had to stand, at Prince’s Island you can sprawl out on the grass.
With the tragedy of that mighty Roman Julius Caesar leading the season, followed by the boisterous romantic comedy of The Taming of the Shrew, the park also offers a setting as large as Shakespeare’s own characters.
"It’s certainly a heightened scale," says Ryland Alexander, a recent University of Alberta graduate, two-year veteran of Shakespeare in the Park and Julius Caesar’s Mark Antony. "Being outside is fantastic because you can play really big, which is perfect because Shakespeare writes passionately. All of his characters have passion and say what they mean. It’s beautiful seeing someone onstage being able to demonstrate that kind of sincerity."
Banishing vaguely remembered high school English lessons, the immediacy of the park setting provides for easily accessible theatre. Coupled with the urban outreach of Shakespeare in the City, a program that sees modernized Shakespearean characters like a gymnastic King Lear visit inner-city locations, Shakespeare in the Park is an opportunity both for the experienced theatregoer to enjoy these great works in a setting close to the original and for the Shakespearean newcomer to see his powerful works for the first time.
For its largely student ensemble, however, the program is also an opportunity to improve the skills of its members, to learn from more experienced actors and to make connections which will serve them later in their careers.
"This is a core of a lot of young talent coming up in the city, who will be on the main stages within the next five years," says Alexander. "It’s great to start these relationships young, right out of school and to work with people who are more established. In five years, they’ll still be working there and so, in a way, it’s an opportunity to meet up with them before you meet up with them."
Playing the older Julius Caesar to Alexander’s younger Antony, 10-year theatre veteran and new Shakespeare in the Park participant David Trimble reveals that the experience is by no means one-sided.
"When it comes right down to it… it’s my feeling that I have as much to learn from Ryland or any of the new graduates as they may have to learn from me," he says. "The more you go on in the business, the less connected you become to technical aspects of it and to be reintroduced to that 10 years later is a gift. You develop your own routines and they become tighter and smaller, but being with the students you find this exuberance, this drive and energy. It’s osmosis, right?"
"We really work hard to build the ensemble, first and foremost," agrees Alexander. "We do take classes and the professionals will give instruction, and at that point they do have the floor, but during the rehearsal everyone is equal, we’re all doing this together."
The comfortable interaction between the younger and older actor is obvious during this interview. Like Antony and Caesar, they remain friends despite the differences in their ages and experiences. In a play whose namesake is often forced to maintain a façade of invincibility, it’s a reminder that even an impossibly larger-than-life character like Julius Caesar remains compelling precisely because he ultimately retains his humanity.
"There are several lines, especially in his private chats with his wife Calpurnia, when Caesar divulges the fact that he is not invincible, that he is just a man," says Trimble, who is dedicating his Shakespeare in the Park season to his daughter Grayce.
"It’s an air that he has to maintain, a status that he has to maintain among his peers," says Trimble, "but it’s so beautifully written that Shakespeare allows the humanity of Caesar to come through."
While the personal interaction between the actors may largely remain offstage, the next two months promise theatre that doesn’t retreat inside. Shakespeare in the Park runs seven days a week and is open to anyone visiting the park. Admission is by donation, collected by the actors after a performance.
"You get a lot of people that don’t even expect to see theatre that night," says Alexander. "‘We’ve got a couple of hours,’ they might say, ‘we’re just going for a walk anyway.’ This company is all about accessibility, it’s open to everyone."
Julius Caesar runs daily (except Mondays) from July 2 until July 11 and then plays on alternate days from July 27 until August 21. The Taming of the Shrew runs daily (except Mondays) from July 15 to 21, and then alternates with Caesar from July 28 until August 22.
Starting July 5, Do You Bite Your Thumb At Me, Sir?, a compilation of Shakespeare’s most famous fight scenes, will run every Monday night. |
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