Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Every summer, people line up in the middle of the night to get their free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park at Central Park. They camp out and are not even guaranteed they will get a ticket, and when they do get a ticket, they are too exhausted to actually enjoy the show since they have been awake for so many hours. Why do all these people waste all their energy when they can get the exact same experience in Brooklyn without pulling an all-nighter“

The EBE Ensemble has presented two Shakespeare productions outdoors at the Music Pagoda in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park this summer, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. This review is of the production of Julius Caesar.

Outdoor theater is truly exciting when the space is used to its full potential and this production, directed by Kristine Ayers, takes advantage of the levels of the music pagoda. Levels are used in a unique way. Speeches and fights that might otherwise seem monotonous and redundant have an interesting life.

Julius Caesar is a play completely dependent on passion and all four of the leads have their own sense of passion. It is a little unclear why the choice was made to have Julius Caesar played by a woman (Camille Mazurek), but Ms. Mazurek does a very strong job as the betrayed leader. Eric Alba (Brutus) delivers his speeches to the audience with strength and Len Rella (Cassius) has an excellent distinction of all the things that he is saying. It would be a shame to also not mention Nick Reinhardt’s touching and passionate portrayal of Mark Antony. The famous “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech did not feel cliché or forced. Strong diction and text analysis are what makes this production so excellent. The actors were not lazy and knew exactly what they were saying at every moment. As a result, it was always easy to understand what was going on. Shakespeare can feel intimidating because of the complexity of the language, but the specificity of the acting and staging made it just as easy to follow as contemporary drama.

Go check out Shakespeare in the Pagoda. Bring a sandwich and a lounge chair (but they also have them at the site). Al Pacino’s not in it, but it’s still excellent Shakespeare in the Park.