Shakespeare for absolute beginners

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

This is one of the several Roman plays Shakespeare wrote, and although it is an independent work in all essentials, it does loosely connect to his later play Anthony and Cleopatra. Julius Caesar is the axial character in this play, but he is in terms of presence on the stage a minor one – he appears only in few scenes, and the famous murder happens at the beginning of Act 3. This is a play about power, real and imaginary, and about those who have it and those who want it.

The play in its basics tells a historically accurate story of the end of Julius Caesar’s life and death. Caesar has defeated his co-ruler and old friend Pompey the Great; he returns to Rome in triumph and is offered the throne, but there are dark portents. A…