About the Show
The play opens with Caesar returning victorious, her immense popularity causing fear among senators that she will turn the republic into a tyranny. Cassius, envious of Caesar’s power, manipulates the principled Brutus into joining a conspiracy to assassinate her for the good of Rome. Despite foreboding warnings from a Soothsayer and her wife, Calpurnia, Caesar proceeds to the Senate on the Ides of March. There, she is stabbed by the conspirators, famously questioning Brutus’s betrayal as she dies.
Brutus justifies the murder to the public, but Mark Antony skillfully manipulates the crowd with her “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech, turning them against the conspirators. Chaos erupts, and Brutus and Cassius flee. They form an army but fight amongst themselves, fueled by paranoia and the weight of their actions. Antony, partnering with Octavius, defeats them at the Battle of Philippi. Recognizing the futility of their cause, Cassius and Brutus commit suicide. Antony, finding Brutus’s body, praises her as “the noblest Roman of them all,” closing the tragedy on a note of respect.
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Production Team
