Upside down Shakespeare

New Zealand keeps turning things upside down on us. First it is the position of the sun. Then we have Christmas in the summer. And now they’ve turned Shakespeare upside down.

On Monday evening we attended the Pop Up Globe’s gender-flipped production of Julius Caesar, in which all of the traditionally male roles are changed to female roles, and vice-versa. No names are changed, but pronouns are changed, so in Mark Anthony’s famous “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears” speech, she says

“Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

She was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says she was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable woman.”    etc.

The director accentuates the disparity of power between men and women in the traditional play by having the “husbands” (originally wives) of Brutus and Ceasar, Portia and Calpurnia, appear dressed in sack-cloth and with hands or feet chained together.

I’m not sure exactly what the director intended in offering this gender-flipped version, but it certainly was not to reduce the brutality of the play. We had purchased “groundling” tickets, which allowed us to stand in the open-air section just in front of the stage, eye-level with the feet of the actors. Because there were many empty seats, just before the play began we were offered seats that were directly on the edge of the stage. We were grateful to be able to sit rather than stand through the entire play. We were even more grateful to avoid the copious amounts of blood that flew out over the groundlings everytime a character was murdered. (And that happens with gruelling rapidity in the second act!).

The view from our seats at stage right, just after the murder of Julius Caesar.

For me (Marsha), the gender flipping simply emphasized that brutality and greed are human responses: lust for power can corrupt women just as thoroughly, and just as tragically, as men.

The director also brought in a Kiwi twist by choreographing the fight scenes in a style somewhat reminiscent of the Maori haka war dance. The women of both armies were dressed as riot police with clear plastic shields, and as they faced off against each other each group crouched down, banged their batons against the shields over their chests, and uttered explosive “ha” sounds. It was clearly not a true haka, but was linked to it.

We look forward to seeing other plays this summer and seeing if any more turn us upside down before the pop up theatre gets popped down.  (In case you are wondering, the Pop Up Globe Theatre is a full-scale, temporary replica of the London Globe theatre that Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed in. Hence, the cheap groundling tickets.)