Determined to take the 2000-01 season by storm, the National Pastime Theater company draws a deep collective breath and plunges into the "angry flood" of its first classical piece: William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, adapted and directed by Laurence Bryan. It begins in fury, the "tempest dropping fire," and never relents.
 
Ambition, betrayal, dark nights of the soul and shocking violence - this timeless story is undamaged in Bryan's rethinking. Julius Caesar, newly triumphant yet secretly frail, returns to Rome to learn that although the commoners champion his elevation to king, his fellow patricians do not, including Brutus who is, save Mark Antony, Caesar's oldest and dearest friend. Noble Brutus' crisis of conscience is exacerbated by the fiercely patriotic schemer Cassius, who persuades him that only Caesar's death will restore Rome to its right republican glories. Set loose by regicide, "the dogs of war" rip through every player, leaving each forever changed...or destroyed.
 
Bryan's sights are dead-set on that same high-powered social melodrama which defines National Pastime. With shows as disparate as Servant of the People!! The Rise and Fall of Huey P. Newton & the Black Panther Party, The Adding Machine, and Yuba City, NPT has proven it: Far from being incompatible with sophisticated analysis, hard-charging in-your-face theatre is the surest way of compelling audiences to heed deeper themes.
 
Besides NPT Artistic Director Bryan, principal contributors include David Denman [Set; NPT member], Imma Curl [Costumes], with film & video by Comet Films, music by Regan Strukoff, fights by R & D choreography. The cast includes Arch Harmon, Michael Hargrove, and Candis Hacker [NPT members all], with Mark Habert, Jeffrey Hoge, Michael Martin, Brian Bennett, Linh Phanh Pham, Allen Doederlein, Hobie Hobart, Beata Swiderska, Eli Oberlander, Ron Mace, Justin Smith and Josh Ryder.
 
Click here for the cast bios