I came, I saw — and it appears that CAST will conquer.

Those too “preoccupied” (inebriated) at the end of Easter to catch Julius Caesar’s preview in Trinity Chapel missed an inspired use of setting. Shakespeare’s historical tragedy (no I’m not following folio definitions) has an air of sacrilege well-suited to a holy space. The chapel’s organ, typically reserved for songs of worship, is made to signal Caesar’s (Eddie Adams) entrances. As the plot unfolds, the solipsistic manoeuvring and ensuing civil carnage read (in the best way possible) uncomfortably against the sombre worldliness of the hall. Even the scene where Cassius (Eanna Ferguson) dubs herself and Brutus (Isaac Jackson) “underlings” takes on special meaning — with the actors situated beneath the chapel’s tiered pews, underlying the raised audience and, far above, the stained-glass faces of saints and kings in the windows.

“Each iteration of the play is a unique production”

You’d think director Imogen Gray’s vision were tailored to the space, but I’m told a lot of this complement was coincidental. The chapel was secured close to opening night, extending CAST’s tradition of unique preview spaces (last year’s Romeo and Juliet debuted at the Round Chapel). A contrast to the fixed arrangements for ETG and Footlights Tour, it makes for more pensive theatre.

Of course, this production will spend most of its life in conventional stages across the U.S., removed from the chapel’s traverse dimensions. How will the blocking and direction translate? Imogen isn’t sure yet — and that’s exactly how she wants to play it. We discussed her “fluid” approach: in her eyes, each iteration of the play is a unique production. This evening (25/08) it premieres at the University Arms in Cambridge, where the team have been holed up — a refreshing collaboration between town and gown, and testament to tour managers Daisy and Alex’s entrepreneurial thinking. They’re playing in the ballroom, where some artistic decisions, such as Caesar’s corpse being cushioned by the base of his throne, can easily be preserved. But at one point, the audience is led down from their seats to inspect Caesar’s body — how will that function across different theatres? We’ll have to wait and see; expect an influx of Americanised propaganda posters though, adorned with the faces of Caesar and Brutus — these are a key thematic focus of the team's vision.

“The preview achieved a wonderfully sleek timelessness”

Daisy and Alex tell me about CAST’s history. Pre-Covid (a Cambridge generation ago now) the tour enjoyed fixed dates and venues. But the pandemic haemorrhaged both its finances and American connections. 2022’s All’s Well That Ends Well did not, in fact, end well — having to be cancelled. The focus of Romeo and Juliet was to keep the tour afloat. Now, in a more secure position, Daisy and Alex have broader ambitions for reviving CAST’s fortunes. They’ve plotted a careful route among the East Coast (including stopovers in New York and, to Alex’s delight, Salem). But they’ve also reached out to theatres beyond this year’s venues, keen to announce their re-emergence ahead of future tours.

Nowadays we’re used to Shakespeare being extracted from its original context, but a history (or whatever) like Julius Caesar, so firmly welded to its Ancient Roman trappings, begs questions. Inspired by Nicholas Hytner’s 2018 production, though, the preview achieved a wonderfully sleek timelessness. The naval-esque uniforms of Caesar and his top brass seemed modern without speaking to a particular time. And, of course, the human drama propelling the story - the worldly pleas belying personal motivations, the sinister demagoguery — are all too relatable in 2024: just consider where the tour is headed.

“It’s special that there’s a certain story this year; a purpose”

That’s not to say this vision doesn’t bring complications. Ferguson’s Cassius uses female pronouns, though she retains her political autonomy - but Portia’s (Gwynneth Horbury) speech about Rome’s stratified patriarchy is kept in. I probe Imogen about this. “I couldn’t just cut that speech!”, she tells me (I agree). Workshopping the scene in rehearsals, she and the cast determined that it spoke to the contradictions of their vision’s unique political landscape. How prescient, given that the U.S., with all its setbacks in women’s rights, may now elect its first female president in November. In fact, considering Trump’s own botched assassination, Biden’s (figurative) defenestration, the fact that 2024 will feature more elections worldwide than any year in history — could this production be more timely? Leaning into this, CAST will host workshops aimed at school-aged audiences, focused on drawing parallels between the play’s themes of misinformation and propaganda and their manifestations in the real world. Gray tells me she aims not to be preachy or partisan here, but one wonders if encouraging Americans to think critically about such things doesn’t automatically set them against one particular party in 2024.

I ask Daisy and Alex about this year’s tour fee: an unfortunate £850. It angers them too, though they’ve done their best to source aid for students in need. Daisy tells me that an ideal world, CAST would be able to self-fund entirely, just like Footlights. But getting to such a point requires hard work and careful acumen in order to build up sufficient windfall to pave an easier road ahead for future tours. “The evil that men do lives after them” croons Mark Antony (Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin) in his elegy for Caesar. Let’s hope that the good of this year’s CAST lingers in the same vein; Daisy is already eyeing up successors for next year’s management. It faces a challenge impressed by circumstance - but I think it’s special that there’s a certain story this year; a purpose. In this, it has a broader parallel with theatre in the post-Covid age more generally: battered by the pandemic, it returns, confident and renewed, to resume its goal of reaching across borders - literal and figurative — uniting people of all stripes in the dark of the audience.

‘CAST 2024: Julius Caesar’ previewed at Trinity College Chapel from 19th-20th June. It is currently showing at the University Arms Hotel in Cambridge from 25th-27th August, at 7:30pm (25th & 27th) and 5pm (26th), respectively. It will then tour across the East Coast of the United States, before returning to Cambridge from 8th-12th October at the ADC Theatre, at 7:45pm (including a matinee on the 12th, at 2:30pm).