Julius Caesar on Shakespeare's Stage

By DJ Hopkins

Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar had its premiere in London in 1599. This was a breakthrough year for Shakespeare. At the age of 36, he became a part-owner in a major theatre company, sharing in its box office revenue. His company opened a new theatre that year, and Caesar was likely the first play to be performed in the new Globe: a roofless amphitheater in the “entertainment district” of early modern London, where crowds frequented pubs, brothels, bear-baiting pits, as well as other theatres. The Globe would have held an audience of hundreds in a relatively small, crowded space. On stage, there would have been no set and few props; costumes would have been minimal, mostly contemporary clothing; and the actors would have spent very little time in rehearsal.
Shakespeare frequently acted in his company’s productions, but he was becoming well known as a playwright, and this was the year that cemented that reputation. In 1599, Shakespeare wrote four of his most acclaimed and beloved plays: Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. These four plays are among my very favorites by Shakespeare. Like the other plays written in this amazing year, Julius Caesar makes clear how much Shakespeare loved the theatre.

Theatricality can be seen all over this play, especially in the first three acts: We first see Caesar in a holiday parade (which were popular, theatrical entertainments in Shakespeare’s England). Caesar tells Anthony that he doesn’t trust Cassius because “he loves no plays” — no worse crime in a play by Shakespeare! Later, it’s Cassius (ironically) who imagines the assassination of Caesar being performed as a play in the distant future — exactly what was happening in London in 1599 when this play was first performed. And the turning point in Act III comes when Anthony uses his superior powers of theatrical performance to turn the people against the conspirators, taking Rome back from Brutus and Cassius with nothing more than a well delivered monologue. Elizabethan audiences loved seeing plays like Julius Caesar that pointed out their own status as theatrical events. And in 1599, Shakespeare was London’s master of meta-theatricality.