Theater Review (NYC): ‘Julius Caesar’ from Smith Street Stage

Shakespeare in the (Other) Park

Smith Street Stage doesn’t tout its productions at Carroll Park in Brooklyn as “immersive.” But there’s an organic participatory quality to the way the company uses the outdoor space. It makes the audience feel like part of the action, without putting anyone on the spot.

Julius Caesar lends itself well to a staging that effects crowd scenes by scattering cast members among and around the audience, where they can shout, interrupt the onstage action, fire themselves up as if one of us – turning each of us conversely into one of the them.

Outdoors in a small public park, without amplification, actors must project their voices somatically, as in the old days. That necessitates a goodly amount of yelling. Fortunately, Julius Caesar is a hotbed of elevated oration. At Smith Street Stage’s current production one can feel one is at a theater in Shakespeare’s time, and at the same time at the Forum in ancient Rome.

The cast embodies Shakespeare’s characters’ efflorescent personalities – and makes them believable. Smith Street Stage excels at rendering Shakespearean language understandable and the stories intelligible.

An Uncrowned Emperor

Director Jonathan Hopkins has assembled a banger of a cast. Caesar himself is a relatively small presence in a play that bears his name. Louis Butelli’s wry portrait and greater age than the rest of the cast create an interesting dynamic with the younger actors who play the conspiring business-suit-clad senators, the servants, and his ally Marc Antony.

Katie Willmorth sets the tone as a fiery – and touchy – Cassius, passionately opposed to the tyranny that Caesar’s recent triumphs are threatening to bring on. Amara James Aja adeptly evolves his soliloquizing Brutus from a square conformist into a principled leader and assassin.

Highlights of the powerful staging include the thunderstorm (effectuated by lighting, which comes into play after the sky darkens during the course of the show) and a percussion ensemble that provides the incidental music; the scene where Marc Antony (Bryce Foley), hiding his fealty to the murdered Caesar, shakes the hands of each conspirator in turn; and Antony’s soliloquy over Caesar’s bloody corpse. The clash and rapprochement between Brutus and Cassius is a gutsy scene as well.

And that’s all aside from the famous funeral scene, with Brutus’ noble speech and Antony’s oration. Foley delivers the latter with a desperate cockiness that crowns a wildly dangerous performance.

The solid ensemble cast and inventive creative team create a compelling Julius Caesar that makes great use of the space. The actors admirably declaim over passing helicopters and ambulances and the shouts of children from the adjacent playground, distractions that, to me, ultimately added more atmosphere than annoyance. The Smith Street Stage production runs through June 7, 2026 at Carroll Park in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Performances are free, but contributions are gratefully accepted.