Petty Men Review – Students Plan Their Own Version of Julius Caesar | stage

THis dressing room is not glamorous: there are no telegrams, no buzzes, no flowers. Instead, there is a sickly potted plant and a bucket to catch the drips. It is the students’ hideout in the West End production of Julius Caesar. One of the big names plays Caesar (the consensus is that he’s a bit of a jerk), while our guys cover the main assassins. They don’t even get their own names here – just Understudy Brutus and Understudy Cassius.

Night after night, they sneak away, waiting for the call that never comes, and Tani emerges as a relentless reminder of the show passing them by. In the show’s 100th performance, they celebrate with party hats, microwave popcorn and a stage show they may never perform for real.

Why should only the stars shine? The production itself, say the students, is not up to much. Maybe they would save her, if they had the chance. They quietly wish they’d break someone’s leg – what if they’re wasting not only time, but perhaps a lead?

Buzz Studios was founded by actor Adam Goodbody in memory of his aunt Buzz, the pioneering director of the Shakespeare Studio, who died 50 years ago. At the company’s first performance, his agent, Cassius, was overly prepared, and sharp in line; John Chesham’s slouched colleague drinks tea with whiskey. They move through the text with varying degrees of intensity, paraphrasing, and chatty comments.

The pair, who created the play with director Julia LeVay, deftly delineate how companionship turns into competition in Shakespeare – the assassination marks the moment when Brutus and Cassius become closest, and yet, their bond begins to tear apart. In Levi’s innovative production, the dull room (designed by Thomas Palmer) cracks in the face of grotesque illusions and dreams, and the commentary goes wild.

Despite its boldness in form, Petty Men feels like a narrow reading of the play, one about personal ambition rather than political conviction. Julius Caesar is a play for our kingless age. Killing to save the state is one thing; But no matter how highly charged the bubble of theatrical production may seem, it cannot be as important as the actual fate of Rome.