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Julius Caesar

Reviewed by Steven Leigh Morris

Casa 0101

Through Nov. 16

Oh my — all that talk of “honor” that runs through Shakespeare’s political tragedy. Brutus (Rachel Gonzalez) murders Caesar (Vance Valencia ) because the leader stands poised to become emperor, which Brutus has concluded is bad for Rome. (“If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I say that Brutus’s love to Caesar was no less than his.”) But Brutus goes on to say that his love for Rome is greater than that of any man, which is a justification/rationalization for compiling a team of assassins, including himself, to gore their leader in the guts, killing with “honor” — not like the slaughter of an animal, he insists — and then to make beautiful speeches after, about love.

If ever there was a play about the hollowness of rhetoric urging on the expedience of power, this is it – a kind of Nineteen Eight Four written in 1599. This is a play largely about speeches designed to mask hidden motives, the kinds of speeches used when any nation goes to war, when a company fires a veteran employee (invariably accompanied by talk of opportunities and silver linings and doors opening).

Robert Beltran’s staging is more clear than nuanced, approached with considerable competence and occasional flair. The cast wanders the stage in costume designer Abel Alvarado’s tunics, shoulder drapes and dark trousers and shoes. This lends an interpretation of something between an attempt at timelessness and garage sale chic. Most telling, however, is Beltran’s gender-bent casting of Brutus (Gonzalez) and Antony (Lauren Ballesteros). In addition to adding a certain homoerotic thread to the marriage between Brutus and Portia (Linda Lopez), it brings a hetero-erotic turn to the alliance between Brutus and Cassius (Fidel Gomez). And inversely, simultaneously – since the production offers no hint that they’re actually lovers — it certainly invites reflection on the permutations of a platonic friendship between a man and woman, who are bonded by a shared sense of duty and conviction.

Silver-haired Valencia is very good in the title role, serving up a wily gravitas along with sparkling diction. As Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, Christina Avila offers a lucid, justifiably paranoid interpretation.

This production is part of Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Encuentro 2014 festival.

Casa 0101 2102 East First Street, Boyle Heights; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. Sun., 5 p.m.; through Nov. 16. (323) 263-7684, https://www.casa0101.org