Review: First Encounters: Julius Caesar (The Other Place)
Review by Raphael Kohn
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The cynics among us could suggest that the Royal Shakespeare Company is separating actors by gender. Up until quite recently, an all-male production of As You Like It played on their main stage, with all parts played as their own genders but by men only. Now, in the RSC’s smallest space, a perfect counterpoint is revived: an all-female Julius Caesar, staged in Stratford-Upon-Avon after a tour to secondary schools across the country. What a new and original idea this seems...
Apart from the fact it sort of… isn’t. This is actually a revival, fourteen years on, of a production that originally played at the Donmar Warehouse. Now, in 2026, it comes back to life in a tour across secondary schools and a short residency in Stratford-Upon-Avon. You’d hardly guess it though; it still feels breathtakingly creative and modern. Set in a women’s prison, Shakespeare’s political thriller takes on a whole new level of power play as the inmates re-enact Shakespeare’s factional tussle.
The concept may be unique, but it feels so well-suited to the text that it’s as if Shakespeare himself came up with it. The bubbling tension and violent assassinations (apologies for the spoilers but it’s well-known history) feel completely appropriate for the incarcerated setting, where factionalism and gangs take hold. Streamlined into just ninety minutes with no interval, the intensity is heightened to the stratosphere, as violence and aggression is brought straight to the fore.
It helps, as well, that Bunny Christie’s minimalist, confined setting narrows the focus squarely down. The production has previously played in school halls and gyms; here in the RSC’s studio, with the audience configured on all four sides, the action feels trapped and boxed in. It is as if us, the audience, are the very guards who our prisoners are at the mercy of. Add to that Zeynep Kepekli’s vibrant lighting, conjuring up the tedium of prison life with multiple moments of whacking all the house lights on, while also using fluorescent LED bars and strobes to their full, exhilarating effect.
Director Phyllida Lloyd’s political inclinations are hardly subtly hinted at. It’s very clear that the victims of her story are not the assassinated characters, nor the people of Rome. Rather, the spotlight is squarely on the women whose lives have been upended by the criminal justice system but are far too often the victims of life circumstances which led to their imprisonment. Modern-language prologues and interjections cement this all too clearly, alongside a number of interruptions from the offstage ‘prison guards’, never letting the narrative framing device fade into the background and hammering home its point about the UK’s treatment of prisoners.
Part of that is achieved through Lloyd’s modern additions, though partially she achieves it through unflinchingly violent staging. Murders happen in plain sight and genuinely close to the front rows, carefully walking the tightrope between shock value and genuinely harrowing brutality. The knives may be plastic and the guns may be toys with orange tips and fluorescent polymer material (after all, it’s supposed to be a prison theatre troupe), but the horror it elicits is just as striking as if it were more realistic.
And yet, despite the fact that this production is fourteen years old, somehow it feels genuinely urgent. Most of its cast have been with it from the beginning; most notably Harriet Walter as Brutus. Her acting chops are in as fine form as ever as she meticulously characterises her conflicted and morally troubled character, and even though the play has been remarkably shortened she still feels as rounded and detailed as if the entire text had been performed.
Much of the original 2012 or 2016 revival casts have also returned; Jackie Clune (from 2016) is in fine form as the despotic Caesar, gleefully enjoying the crowds fawning around her and chanting her name, while Jenny Jules (from 2012) returns as Cassio, manipulating and masterminding Caesar’s assassination while never falling into a cartoon villain interpretation.
Lloyd has also switched the casting up a little in some cases; Leah Harvey takes on the mantle as Mark Antony (previously playing the Soothsayer in the 2016 revival). This only plays to her strengths, of course, as her double-perspective on the play brings out of her a masterful performance, bloodthirstily committing atrocities in battle and descending into amorality.
Credit must be given to the RSC on their outreach efforts here; the production is only in Stratford-Upon-Avon after a tour across British secondary schools. What a privilege it must have been for all those students, able to watch world-class Shakespearean drama being performed right in their own spaces. What a relief it is that the RSC is continuing to stage the production for the rest of us, even if only for a short run. Thought-provoking and shocking, it’s a remarkable theatrical achievement.
First Encounters: Julius Caesar plays at The Other Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon until 28th November 2026. Tickets from https://www.rsc.org.uk/first-encounters-julius-caesar-2026/
Photos by Helen Maybanks