Editing Julius Caesar (play) (section)

==Performance history==
The play was probably one of Shakespeare's first to be performed at the [[Globe Theatre]].<ref>[[G. Blakemore Evans|Evans, G. Blakemore]] (1974). ''[[Riverside Shakespeare|The Riverside Shakespeare]]''. Houghton Mifflin Co. p. 1100.</ref> [[Thomas Platter the Younger]], a [[Swiss people|Swiss]] traveler, saw a tragedy about [[Julius Caesar]] at a [[Bankside]] theatre on 21 September 1599, and this was most likely Shakespeare's play, as there is no obvious alternative candidate. (While the story of Julius Caesar was dramatized repeatedly in the Elizabethan/Jacobean period, none of the other plays known is as good a match with Platter's description as Shakespeare's play.)<ref>[[Richard Edes]]'s Latin play ''Caesar Interfectus'' (1582?) would not qualify. The [[Admiral's Men]] had an anonymous ''Caesar and Pompey'' in their repertory in 1594–95, and another play, ''Caesar's Fall, or the Two Shapes,'' written by [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]], [[Michael Drayton]], [[Thomas Middleton]], [[Anthony Munday]], and [[John Webster]], in 1601–02, too late for Platter's reference. Neither play has survived. The anonymous ''Caesar's Revenge'' dates to 1606, while [[George Chapman]]'s ''Caesar and Pompey'' date from ca. 1613. E. K. Chambers, ''Elizabethan Stage'', Vol. 2, p. 179; Vol. 3, pp. 259, 309; Vol. 4, p. 4.</ref>

After the theatres re-opened at the start of the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] era, the play was revived by [[Thomas Killigrew]]'s [[King's Company]] in 1672. [[Charles Hart (17th-century actor)|Charles Hart]] initially played Brutus, as did [[Thomas Betterton]] in later productions. ''Julius Caesar'' was one of the very few Shakespeare plays that was not adapted during the Restoration period or the eighteenth century.<ref>Halliday, p. 261.</ref>

===Notable performances===
[[File:Booths Caesar.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[John Wilkes Booth]] (left), [[Edwin Booth]] and [[Junius Brutus Booth Jr.]] in Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'' in 1864.]]
* 1864: [[Junius Brutus Booth Jr.|Junius Jr.]], [[Edwin Booth|Edwin]] and [[John Wilkes Booth]] (later the assassin of U.S. President [[Abraham Lincoln]]) made the only appearance onstage together in a benefit performance of ''Julius Caesar'' on 25 November 1864, at the [[Winter Garden Theater (1850)|Winter Garden Theater]] in New York City. Junius Jr. played Cassius, Edwin played Brutus and John Wilkes played Mark Antony. This landmark production raised funds to erect a [[Memorials to William Shakespeare#United States|statue of Shakespeare]] in Central Park, which remains to this day.
* 29 May 1916: A one-night performance in the natural bowl of [[Beachwood Canyon, Los Angeles|Beachwood Canyon]], Hollywood drew an audience of 40,000 and starred Tyrone Power Sr. and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The student bodies of Hollywood and Fairfax High Schools played opposing armies, and the elaborate battle scenes were performed on a huge stage as well as the surrounding hillsides. The play commemorated the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death. A photograph of the elaborate stage and viewing stands can be seen on the Library of Congress website. The performance was lauded by [[L. Frank Baum]].<ref>{{cite magazine |first=L. Frank |last=Baum |author-link=L. Frank Baum |title=Julius Caesar: An Appreciation of the Hollywood Production |magazine=Mercury Magazine |date=15 June 1916 |access-date=15 March 2024 |url=http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/juliuscaesar.shtml |via=[[Hungry Tiger Press]]}}</ref>
* 1926: Another elaborate performance of the play was staged as a benefit for the [[Actors Fund of America]] at the [[Hollywood Bowl]]. Caesar arrived for the [[Lupercal]] in a chariot drawn by four white horses. The stage was the size of a city block and dominated by a central tower {{convert|80|ft}} in height. The event was mainly aimed at creating work for unemployed actors. Three hundred [[gladiator]]s appeared in an arena scene not featured in Shakespeare's play; a similar number of girls danced as Caesar's captives; a total of three thousand soldiers took part in the battle sequences.
[[File:Welles-Caesar-1938.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Orson Welles]] as Brutus in the [[Mercury Theatre]]'s ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Caesar]]'' (1937–38)]]
* 1937: ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Caesar]]'', [[Orson Welles]]'s famous [[Mercury Theatre]] production, drew fevered comment as the director dressed his protagonists in uniforms reminiscent of those common at the time in [[Fascist Italian|Fascist Italy]] and [[Nazi Germany]], drawing a specific analogy between Caesar and Fascist Italian leader [[Benito Mussolini]]. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine gave the production a rave review,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758411,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091216072510/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758411,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 December 2009 |title=Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan: Nov. 22, 1937 |magazine=TIME |access-date=13 March 2010 | date=22 November 1937}}</ref> together with the New York critics.<ref name="Houseman RT">{{cite book |last=Houseman |first=John |author-link=John Houseman |title=Run-Through: A Memoir |url=https://archive.org/details/runthroughmemoir00hous |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |location=New York |year=1972 |isbn=0-671-21034-3}}</ref>{{Rp|313–319}} The fulcrum of the show was the slaughter of Cinna the Poet ([[Norman Lloyd]]), a scene that stopped the show.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://eatdrinkfilms.com/2014/07/17/orson-welles-world-and-were-just-living-in-it-a-conversation-with-norman-lloyd/ |title=Orson Welles' World, and We're Just Living in It: A Conversation with Norman Lloyd |last=Lattanzio |first=Ryan |year=2014 |website=EatDrinkFilms.com |access-date=5 November 2015 }}</ref> ''Caesar'' opened at the [[Comedy Theatre (New York City)|Mercury Theatre]] in New York City in November 1937<ref name="Welles TIOW">{{cite book |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |author-link1=Orson Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Bogdanovich |last3=Rosenbaum |first3=Jonathan |author-link3=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers |location=New York |year=1992 |isbn=0-06-016616-9}}</ref>{{Rp|339}} and moved to the larger [[Nederlander Theater|National Theater]] in January 1938,<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|341}} running a total of 157 performances.<ref>{{cite news |date=28 May 1938 |title=News of the Stage; 'Julius Caesar' Closes Tonight |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=950DE2DD1238EE3ABC4051DFB3668383629EDE |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=5 November 2015}}</ref> A second company made a five-month national tour with ''Caesar'' in 1938, again to critical acclaim.<ref name="Callow">{{cite book |last=Callow |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Callow |title=Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu |publisher=[[Viking]] |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-670-86722-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo }}</ref>{{Rp|357}}
* 1950: [[John Gielgud]] played Cassius at the [[Shakespeare Memorial Theatre]] under the direction of [[Michael Langham]] and [[Anthony Quayle]]. The production was considered one of the highlights of a remarkable [[Shakespeare Memorial Theatre|Stratford]] season and led to Gielgud (who had done little film work to that time) playing Cassius in [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]]'s 1953 [[Julius Caesar (1953 film)|film version]].
* 1977: Gielgud made his final appearance in a Shakespearean role on stage as Caesar in [[John Schlesinger]]'s production at the [[Royal National Theatre]]. The cast also included [[Ian Charleson]] as Octavius.
* 1994: [[Arvind Gaur]] directed the play in [[India]] with Jaimini Kumar as Brutus and Deepak Ochani as Caesar (24 shows); later on he revived it with [[Manu Rishi]] as Caesar and Vishnu Prasad as Brutus for the Shakespeare Drama Festival, [[Assam]] in 1998. Arvind Kumar translated ''Julius Caesar'' into [[Hindi]]. This production was also performed at the Prithvi international theatre festival, at the [[India Habitat Centre]], New Delhi.
* 2005: [[Denzel Washington]] played Brutus in the first Broadway production of the play in over fifty years. The production received universally negative reviews but was a sell-out because of Washington's popularity at the box office.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://theater.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/theater/reviews/04caes.html?scp=1&sq=A%20Big-Name%20Brutus%20in%20a%20Caldron%20of%20Chaos&st=cse |title=A Big-Name Brutus in a Caldron of Chaosa |work=The New York Times |access-date=7 November 2010 | date=4 April 2005}}</ref>
* 2012: The [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] staged an all-black production under the direction of [[Gregory Doran]].
* 2012: An all-female production starring [[Harriet Walter]] as Brutus and [[Frances Barber]] as Caesar was staged at the [[Donmar Warehouse]], directed by [[Phyllida Lloyd]]. In October 2013, the production transferred to New York's [[St. Ann's Warehouse]] in Brooklyn.
* 2018: The [[Bridge Theatre]] staged ''Julius Caesar'' as one of its first productions, under the direction of [[Nicholas Hytner]], with [[Ben Whishaw]], [[Michelle Fairley]], and [[David Morrissey]] as leads. This mirrors the play's status as one of the first productions at the [[Globe Theatre]] in 1599.