Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

The works of Shakespeare have been reworked and reimagined many times to make them more relevant/appealing to readers, and they are taught in schools the world over. The current CXC text, Julius Caesar, is being presented to students in an abridged theatrical version with a Trini twist by recently formed local production company, Tout Moun Productions.

Artistic director and Fulbright scholar Michailean Taylor said the creative take on the play is to make it interactive and engaging so the students will get a more holistic understanding of the play. He said their aim is to present the play in a way that does away with the Shakespearean stereotype of being boring and “airy-fairy.” To this end, he is pushing the actors to “find out who these Roman men are and equate them to Trinidadian men, so play your Trinidadian elements in it. There’s a particular pentameter Shakespeare uses that causes us to speak Shakespeare in a particular poetic kind of way, so I’m challenging them to cancel the pentameter and say it the way a Trinidadian would say it.” The play is directed by Taylor and Yale Fellow Marcus Waldron, and stars Che Rodriguez as Marcus Brutus, Errol ‘Blood’ Roberts as Julius Caesar and Renaldo ‘Red’ Fredrerick as Cassius, among other talented actors.
Taylor said since the play is abridged, some of the scenes have been replaced with local songs, including calypso, extempo and speech band, so that the plot remains whole. However, since the students have to write about the play for CSEC and understand the plot and various themes, the language remains the same.
There will also be a Theatre in Education aspect to the production as the students will be interacting with the actors. “Before the play starts, we have someone who reads the house announcements and gives the setup for the audience and tells them there are going to be times where people come at you, engage you, ask you to say a line, ask you to be involved in crowd scenes. Julius Caesar has a long list of characters and out of those we only have seven actors playing eight characters, and so we are trying to let the students take on the roles in some of the characters, led by some of the actors themselves.”
Taylor said there has been a quick and positive response from schools who want their students to participate, particularly as this is the text which is being studied for examinations, as opposed to any other work of Shakespeare.
In a release, the company said “Signaling the fall of the Roman Empire, we peer through the eyes of Caesar’s friend and honorable Roman senator, Marcus Brutus and his cohort who conspire and murder the Roman leader. The story of Julius Caesar illuminates the lies and deceit of a political world that ultimately has dire consequences for the entire society. Tyrant or Traitor, the sealed fates of Caesar and Brutus alert us of “the danger of disjoining remorse from power” and the biggest losers in this political game are always the nameless plebs duped into believing these acts are on their behalf.”
Taylor said the objective of Tout Moun is to “examine Western aspects of Art, including theatre, and find ourselves in it, so we hope to present things that are not known to Trinidad in a manner where we could relate and understand that this could also speak to us and the greater society. What we’re trying to do is broaden the realm of theatre within Trinidad by presenting things that are foreign in a manner that people could appreciate.”
One show of Julius Caesar will be opened to members of the public, at the El Dorado Community Centre on May 4. For more information, email toutmounproductions@gmail.com, call 498-8730 and find Tout Moun Productions on Facebook.