CAESAR’S SUNK BY HIS AMBITION

Julius Caesar (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) Verdict: Nobly flawed ★★★✩✩

ROBERT HASTIE’S inaugural production as head of Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre is nothing if not ambitious. Unfortunately, Julius Caesar is in part a cautionary tale, warning of the dangers of ambition.

Starring Samuel West as Brutus, it’s a production of Shakespeare’s Roman tragedy that wants to be a slick modern thriller. But despite an impressive design by Ben Stones, the story doesn’t entirely play ball.

Hastie has tried hard to update the play in line with modern fantasies of political reality. Some of the conspirators who kill Caesar, including Cassius, are women.

And there’s oodles of atmosphere. Stygian gloom alternates with forensic striplights and, when war breaks out, cables spill across the stage. Hanged apparatchiks swing from the ceiling.

I would have been happy for Hastie to hack back Shakespeare’s hallowed text from its twohour, 40-minutes slog, to make it the two-hour helter-skelter nightmare he wants it to be.

Zoe Waites is interestingly rash and needy as Cassius, but I missed the sarcasm and racier homoeroticism that comes with a man in that role. West is conscientiously reasonable throughout. He is more gutsy when it comes to war, adding authority and presence to moroseness and melancholy.

Hastie has cut himself a big canvas and if it ultimately defeats him, you’ve got to love him for trying.