Review: CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA at Washington Stage Guild
Shaw experts close 40th season with splendid Shaw
Bill Largess has successfully filleted George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra from a detailed historical tale to a concise, 2-hour psychological study of the title characters. Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC. He was around 50, and Shaw portrays him as being slightly bored with his career of successful military campaigns and empire maintenance. When he happens on the 16 year old queen of the place, Cleopatra, whose brother has started a civil war with her rather than playing nice as a sibling should, Caesar discovers a new and different mission. Enabling Cleopatra to evolve from teen queen to cooler ruler challenges him much more than the same old same old of soldiering, and Washington Stage Guild's excellent production, briskly directed by Largess, shares the fun.
Just because Shaw wrote Caesar and Cleopatra in 1898 doesn't make it out of date. His language, indeed all the word choice in the play, sound as modern as last Tuesday. And his feminism never wavers. In many of his other plays, Cleopatra's sisters--Vivie Warren, Eliza Doolittle, and St. Joan, for example—all grow and strengthen the same way Cleopatra does here, to be sure with male influence, but nevertheless into unique individuals. Shaw knows it's the culture that they are up against; he consistently writes women as equal to men.
Hannah Taylor's Cleopatra, already self-confident when she meets Craig Wallace's Caesar if not self-aware enough, takes to Caesar's mentoring almost immediately. When he sees her interacting with her nurse, played by the ever-powerful Laura Giannarelli, it cues him on how to coach her. “A Roman does not heed a woman who is afraid of her servants,” Caesar chides in an early lesson. Taylor diligently demonstrates the many stages that Cleopatra passes through from the playful young woman in the first scene, through power games, cynicism, loss, and error into genuine authority and wisdom. For his part, Wallace's Caesar must juggle his new role as life coach with his customary duties as soldier, diplomat, and leader of the Roman Empire. Wallace does so with aplomb, always knowing when the tone must shift from intimate to commanding.
Along with Giannarelli, three other fine performers bring texture and assuredness to Caesar and Cleopatra. As Pothinus, Ryan Michael Neely brings the right degree of opposition to his role as aide to the offstage Ptolemy, Cleopatra's brother. And then, when it's urgent to rise above politics and do what's best for his Egypt, Neely becomes a different man. Chris Stinson (Apollodorus), like a character at Rick's in Casablanca, just wants to sell his stock (carpets, not exit visas). But Shaw respects all layers of society and gives Stinson a real mensch to play underneath all that amusing marketing technique. Matty Griffiths plays a rock and seems like one himself. His role as Rufio, Caesar's Number One, requires perfect balance between deference and command. Griffiths' portrayal defines a person to be trusted.
Marianne Meadows' lighting design provides sumptuous color as background for and reflection of the regal qualities possessed by all six of these characters. Costume Designer Elizabeth Morton gives a class on how to dress a theatre company as if they had a million bucks for costumes alone. Her shapes, colors, and trims for Cleopatra support and mirror the woman's evolution. The cut of Giannarelli's garment is unforgettable; Caesar and Rufio wear Roman elegance and Roman practicality respectively. Apollodorus, a man who travels for a living, has layers. Pothinus' clothes are all summer weight for life in a desert climate.
As to the relevance of a 128 year old play to today's world, in his notes on the play, Shaw wrote of Rome, “All the savagery, barbarism, dark ages and the rest of it of which we have any record as existing in the past, exists at the present moment. . . .there is no reason to suppose that any Progress has taken place since their time.” As true in 2026 as in 1898. In its 40th season, the Washington Stage Guild has offered seldom-produced, very smart Shaw: good-looking, well-acted, an offer that savvy theatregoers in the DMV should not refuse.
Caesar and Cleopatra runs Thursdays through Sundays through May 3 at the Undercroft Theatre, 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC.
(DJ Corey Photography: Hannah Taylor as Cleopatra & Craig Wallace as Caesar)
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