By MIKE TEAL
By January of 1938 – eighty years ago – Caesar, the first production of the new Mercury Theater founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman four months prior, had become so successful that the necessity of a larger theater was obvious.
In this groundbreaking, critically acclaimed modern-dress adaption of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Welles made his Caesar a “Hitler, Mussolini clone” and the Mercury updating was focused on the rise of Fascism in Europe, rather than the fall of the Roman Republic.
The production opened on November 11, 1937, and caused an immediate sensation in the New York theater world, eventually running for a total of 157 performances. A national tour was launched on January 17, 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island.
On January 24, 1938, Caesar moved from the 687-seat Comedy Theater to the 1200-seat National Theater. This innovative tour-de-force remains to this day one of the most renowned Shakespearean productions ever staged in America, and was, according to Welles scholar Richard France, “unquestionably Welles’s highest achievement in the theatre.”
In addition to Welles as Brutus, the cast featured Joseph Holland as Julius Caesar, George Coulouris (Marcus Antonius), Joseph Cotten (Publius) Martin Gabel (Cassius) and Norman Lloyd (Cinna the poet).
In March 1938, members of the original cast recorded highlights from Caesar for Columbia Masterworks Records.
A fictionalized account of the production is the basis of Richard Linklater’s 2008 film Me and Orson Welles with Christian McKay as Welles. Using Samuel Leve’s original designs, Linklater reconstructed the set for Caesar. Linklater filmed some 15 minutes’ worth of scenes, which can be viewed as an extra on the DVD release.
Caesar was a a critical hit for the Mercury Theatre earning rave reviews for the cast, particularly Welles.
Stage magazine put Welles on its June cover and proclaimed Caesar “one of the most exciting dramatic events of our time.”
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