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Explosive ‘eighties set Caesar thrills audiences at Loughborough College

Posted: 21st May 2019 - 9:00pm
Explosive ‘eighties set Caesar thrills audiences at Loughborough College

An explosive ‘eighties-influenced performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has thrilled audiences at Loughborough College’s arts theatre.

Although the bard’s original language remained, the play’s action was relocated to the decade of punk, Miami Vice, Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana.

A soundtrack ranging from Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes to Duran Duran’s Girls on Film to the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen meanwhile offered the perfect backdrop to the political intrigue and unrest.

“Shakespeare’s play has lost none of its power – it worked brilliantly in an ‘eighties setting,” said performing arts lecturer Emma Ledsam. “It was technically demanding to stage the fights and crowd scenes. But working with our choreographer Graham Ireland and staging it along the centre of the theatre with the audience on the same level, facing each other, made it really effective - putting them at the heart of the action.

“Some of our students supported the production in non-performance roles - Rhianne Wignall was a fantastic stage manager and Effie Langley-Evans was brilliant on lighting design. And after our young actors translated the iambic pentameter into modern speech and then back into the original in rehearsal, they were able to bring a real understanding to what they were saying and that really boosted their performance.

“Everyone completely nailed it on the night and the audience loved it. We are all very proud of them.”

The Loughborough College Caesar cast were: Joshua Sahil Badar-Ud-Din; Ashleigh Brown; Lucy Cavill; Ana Da Silva; Katelyn Efford; Emily Goddard; Emily Harrison; Megan Hough; Bright Hughes-Rai; Isabel Peters; Mia Slater; Roby Singh; Iman Mohammadi; Christie King; Malakye Galloway-Baxter; Emilia Hargraves and Katelyn Murphy

Pictured: Explosive ‘eighties-influenced Caesar thrills audiences at Loughborough College