Julius Caesar at CSC

I again had the joy of attending a production with the lovely Robin and Aaron and Nina at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company on Race Street in downtown Cincinnati.

Opening night at the CSC is always exciting and rewarding, and this evening offered Julius Caesar like it's never been done before. The male and female roles were reversed. Julius Caesar was a woman. So was Brutus. Also Cassius. Also Mark Antony. And so on. And vice versa.

The whole cast (as always) performed ably, with Kelly Mengelkoch as Cassius and Sherman Fracher as Brutus leading the way. Sara Clark's delivery of Mark Antony's funeral oration hit the play's high notes beautifully. It was extremely interesting to see the play's meaty roles performed by women--although so much of Julius Caesar relies on powerful speech, it suffered a bit simply from the physiological limitations of the female voices. Still, it was for me a fun evening, and very likely an unforgettable performance.