200 word copy:
Julius Caesar. A divisive leader who holds awesome power.
Concerned that Caesar poses a threat to democracy, revolutionaries take the violent decision to murder him. As the world spins out of control, chaos, horror, and superstition rush in to fill the void. Civil war erupts and a new leader must rise: but at what cost?
Shakespeare’s thriller exposes the ambiguous morality in trying to shift power. As we rage against the crises surrounding us, how far will each of us go for our beliefs?
Join Icarus Theatre Collective for a boldly modern re-telling, perfect for newcomers to Shakespeare. Set in the near future, we combine state-of-the-art digital technology, fully integrated Creative Captioning to enhance clarity for deaf and hearing audiences, and classic theatrical magic to highlight parallels between the gossip and doom-mongers of Ancient Rome and the violence caused by fake news, celebrity culture, and conspiracy theories.
Directed by award-winning director Max Lewendel as the latest in a series of plays devised to unite theatre fans from the hearing, deaf community, as well as the online generation.
All in original verse, with Creative Captioning for not only deaf audiences, but those new to Shakespeare, English as a second language, etc.
Running time: 2h10m including 20min interval
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115 word copy:
Julius Caesar. A divisive leader who holds awesome power.
What is sparking dark omens and plots to overthrow the conquering hero? And what will be the result if he is brought down?
Join Icarus Theatre Collective as we inject fresh relevance into Shakespeare’s thriller by setting it in the near future. We use digital screens and creative graphics to underscore the parallels between the schemers of Ancient Rome, the turmoil of Shakespeare’s England, and the violence caused by fake news, celebrity culture, and conspiracy theories.
All in original verse, with Creative Captioning for not only deaf audiences, but those new to Shakespeare, English as a second language, etc.
Running time: 2h10m including 20min interval
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60 word copy:
Julius Caesar. A divisive leader who holds awesome power.
William Shakespeare’s thriller gains new relevance through the use of social media-inspired visuals to underscore the parallels between the schemers of Ancient Rome and the violence caused today by fake news, celebrity culture, and conspiracy theories.
In original verse, with Creative Captioning for all performances.
Running time: 2h10m including 20min interval
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Further Details: (for programmers)
Draft Concept:
Set in the modern world, we focus on social media and fake news becoming prophecy.
Before the crime, Brutus is tormented by an onslaught of social media bullying projected across the set. After he kills Caesar, instead of a literal ghost, deep fake videos of the murdered emperor haunt him, with the images enveloping the set as the noose tightens around the conspirators.
This "ghost" is ambiguous in nature, mirroring contemporary concerns about AI-generated deep-fakes. Brutus can’t escape the 24 hour news and social media streams as he's tagged into pictures of Caesar’s bloody corpse.
During the war in the final act (cut down for dramatic and thematic purposes), there is an onslaught of social media blitz against the conspirators. At the Climax, Caesar emerges from the social media milieu to exact revenge, stabbing Brutus and the other conspirators before vanishing back into the set.
Then Mark Anthony arrives to the scene, announcing that they all fell upon their sword.
This ambiguous ending provides a question for audiences to debate, falling in the space between mystical fantasy, artificial imagery, or guilt-ridden psychological torment.
Creative Captioning:
Social Media and WhatsApp text bubbles will serve as Creative Captioning throughout, interwoven into the design so that the production is accessible to all. Mark Anthony’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech will blend Creative Captioning with Integrated, Creative BSL: He’s a politician at a podium with a BSL interpreter, translating as he goes (an interpreter who is a character in their own right, throughout the play). On the set is projected the live tweets of the angry crowd. “Brutus? HONOURALBE?! Kill the conspirators!”, etc.
To introduce this language to all audiences, we have experimented with the opening scene, to set the opening tone in contrast (comedic) to the dramatic tone of the rest of the play, reflecting the relationship between onlinememe-culture and real-world consequences:
https://www.icarustheatre.co.uk/live
Split week: £9,900 v 75/25
Three days, three to four performances
Full Week: £18,900 v 75/25
seven to eight performances
A5 leaflets and posters in three sizes provided in any reasonable quantity, overprinted with venue details
At venue cost:
Three in-house technicians provided at for get-in and get out, one or two during performances
Box office, marketing, and technical provisions as standard for a venue of your scale
Normal captioning uses a surtitle box over the stage that serves no dramatic purpose, distracts from the story, and is heavily criticised by the Deaf community as being like "reading a play while watching a play."
Our new captioning technology (and indeed the whole design working in concert) functions almost as an additional character on stage. The cast interact. It interacts with them.
We don’t just display “Music plays” to describe the score, but instead musical notes travel along the walls, moving in ways that allow Deaf/HoH audiences to understand the emotion behind the music and at the same time gives the hearing audience an extra sensory perception of the story.
We are also able to enhance words visually the way the cast say them. We don’t need to write a lot of text to describe a town; we can just draw the town on the set.
Hearing audiences have responded enthusiastically that our Creative Captioning enhances rather than distracts and Deaf audiences have unanimously said that this type of technology would bring them to the theatre more.
Learn more here:
https://youtu.be/SKiX-oCiTJE
