{"id":11135,"date":"2019-05-03T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T17:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=11135"},"modified":"2019-05-03T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T17:02:08","slug":"when-good-men-do-bad-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/03\/when-good-men-do-bad-things\/","title":{"rendered":"When Good Men Do Bad Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DANA DUGAN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The set for \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d will use simple boxes, projections and theatre in the traverse. Photo credit: The Spot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d is, at its core, a cautionary tale. Don\u2019t get in over your head. Don\u2019t lie. Listen to your closest advisors. Judge not. And, above all, actions have consequences.<\/p>\n

When \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d (1599) is staged at The Spot, located at 220 Lewis St., #2, in Ketchum, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, May 2, through Saturday, May 11, one of history\u2019s most notorious coups will be played out.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare wrote four plays concerning ancient Rome, \u201cAntony and Cleopatra,\u201d \u201cCoriolanus,\u201d \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d and \u201cTitus Andronicus.\u201d The Bard sourced all of these from \u201cLives,\u201d penned by Roman historian Plutarch, first printed in Rome in 1470. The play has been adapted by Natalie Battistone, and is set a few years into the future. In fact, describing what he called the punk look of the production, director Kevin Wade said it will have \u201celements of cyber-terrorism and hacking\u2014things in our consciousness today\u2014with a lot with projections.\u201d<\/p>\n

In keeping with The Spot\u2019s proclivity to mix things up for actors and the audience, this production will be in the traverse, meaning the audience will be seated at each end facing toward each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe danced around the plot a little so it makes sense with nine actors in a small space,\u201d Wade said. \u201cBut the story is intact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Battistone streamlined the text so that the audience will see characters through from beginning to end rather than a gaggle of extraneous dramatis personae. Some characters have merged.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are probably less familiar with it than they think they are, but all the elements are there,\u201d said Battistone.<\/p>\n

What will be familiar are several lines well known in everyday parlance, including\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cFriends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,\u201d \u201cBeware the Ides of March,\u201d and \u201cEt tu, Brute?\u201d The meanings of these lines all come from the true story of Caeser and his part in the shaping of the continent. The play still packs an historic wallop.<\/p>\n

A famous general who successfully battled his way through Europe expanding Rome\u2019s boundaries, Julius Caesar was something of a celebrity in Rome in the mid-1st century.<\/p>\n

At that time, Rome was a republic with a group of senators ruling the vast Roman Empire, which Caesar had helped create. However, by the time he and fellow consul Marc Antony declared Caesar king, the elites were displeased by his power and plain cockiness. Indeed, the only reason Caesar was able to lord it over them all\u00a0is because everyone seemed willing to let him. Cassius announced that \u201cthe fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars\/But in ourselves, that we are underlings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t feel he was right for the role,\u201d said Brett Moellenberg, who plays Brutus.<\/p>\n

Conspiracies ensued, resulting in Caesar famously being assassinated by his own comrades in 44 B.C. In the aftermath, Marc Anthony and Octavius Caesar went to war against the conspirators, and eventually won.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of my favorite Shakespeare\u2019s,\u201d Moellenberg said. \u201cIt\u2019s super-accessible, and there\u2019s a ton of action, but not a ton of plot. The characters can go on a distinct journey interpersonally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade said the play, though filled with drama and violence, is really about those relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is right and wrong, and how subjective that can be,\u201d Wade said. \u201cTwo people can be absolutely sure they\u2019re right. It takes that idea and blasts it out to an extreme murder because of what they think is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play has been done in period, set in different locales and in modern dress. But Wade\u2019s idea is trickier.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was inspired by \u2018Mr. Robot\u2019,\u201d Wade said. \u201cIt\u2019s cyber punk light.\u201d<\/p>\n

That show, on USA Network, stars Rami Malek. Its tagline is \u201cOur democracy has been hacked.\u201d Indeed, \u201cJulius Caesar,\u201d because it\u2019s more than just knife fights and entanglements, can seem incredibly timely. An overriding theme in the show\u2014if everyone wears a mask, how do you know who your friends are\u2014can be equally applied to the times in which we now live.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin\u2019s idea with this piece is to create a world that feels relevant,\u201d Moellenberg said. \u201cThe setting isn\u2019t a gimmick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Mazzella, who plays Cassius, agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s a malleable setting that allows the audience to pull what they need from the play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Members of the cast also include Yanna Lantz as Portia and others; Sara Gorby as Calpurnia and others; Rachael Aanestad as Decius and others; Peter Burke as Caesar and others; Kagen Albright as Marc Antony and others; and Chris Henderson as Casca and others.<\/p>\n

For tickets, call (208) 928-6241, or visit thespot.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By DANA DUGAN William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d is, at its core, a cautionary tale. Don\u2019t get in over your head. Don\u2019t lie. Listen to your closest advisors. Judge not. And, above all, actions have consequences. When \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d (1599) is staged at The Spot, located at 220 Lewis St., #2, in Ketchum, at 7:30 p.m., […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,4,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calendar-2","category-entertainment","category-calendar-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}