Brutus is now a knife-wielding woman in RSC’S Julius Caesar
‘Along with several other parts, we’ve re-imagined these two roles to tell a story about power today’
JULIUS CAESAR will be slain by the first female Brutus ever cast by the Royal Shakespeare Company in a new gender-swapping production.
British-brazilian performer Thalissa Teixeira will play Caesar’s friendturned-assassin in an upcoming adaptation, with fellow actress Kelly Gough also playing a male character – the coconspirator Cassius.
The RSC’S new production of Julius Caesar is the first in its history to mix the genders of key characters in a move intended to highlight themes of “gender, race, class and disability”.
It means that female assassins will slay a male Caesar, played by Nigel Barrett, an innovation it is hoped will “tell a story about power today”.
Atri Banerjee, the director, said: “Julius Caesar is the perfect play for our age of emergency, asking uncomfortable questions about today. When asked to imagine a better future for us all, what resources do we have left? What are the limits of peaceful activism? How far would you, personally, go to make the world a better place?
“By thinking of the roles in this play across intersectional lines – gender, race, class, disability, among others – we’re inviting audience members to think of their own place within the status quo and what might be at stake for each of us within it.”
Adaptations at the Globe Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse in London have experimented with an all-female cast for Shakespeare’s 1599 play, based on the real life assassination of Caesar in 44BC. The story sees Cassius and Brutus seek to slay Caesar to prevent his tyrannical seizure of power, and save the Roman Republic.
Mr Banerjee said: “I’m thrilled to be welcoming this extraordinary cast to our production of Julius Caesar.
“In particular, I’m delighted that audiences will get to see Thalissa Teixeira and Kelly Gough as, respectively, Brutus and Cassius.
“They are two formidable actors and I’m so excited for their take on this central character relationship, within the context of an extraordinary cast of 19 from across the nation.
“I can’t wait to show audiences, both in Stratford and on tour, Shakespeare’s searing political tragedy, as pertinent now as it ever was.
“Along with several other parts across the company, we’ve reimagined these roles to tell a story about power today: who holds it, who wields it, and who gets to challenge it.”
The production will run between March 18 and April 8 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-avon, before a nine-date tour visiting Canterbury, Truro, Bradford, Newcastle, Blackpool, Nottingham, Norwich, York and Salford.