by David Blixt
CAESAR
How? Make me understand.
BRUTUS
Chaos is the weapon of the gods. In trying to impose order, we were agents of chaos. Because chaos isn’t only the best weapon of the gods - it’s their greatest gift! It’s freedom. Freedom is infinitely harder than tyranny, and infinitely preferable.
CAESAR
Softly, Brutus. Take me with you.
BRUTUS
One cannot uphold the law by breaking it. Yes, if the law is itself broken, we must act. But that’s not enough! Endurance is a virtue. If breaking the law is necessary, we must also uphold it by embracing the consequences. That’s what never happens. Caesar broke the law, then held himself above the consequences. Brutus broke the law. To mend it, Brutus must accept his fate.
CAESAR
Return to Rome and face trial?
BRUTUS
If that were an option. You heard Antony. I would never reach Rome - your heir would see to that. Either I must win and go to Rome to submit myself for a trial, or else die here a free man.
CAESAR
By your own hand?
BRUTUS
(steeling himself) If need be. What greater act of freedom can a life have than choosing to end it? (with conviction) It must be by my death. Just as Caesar had to pay the price of his illegal acts, so must Brutus. (turning to CAESAR) I’m right, aren’t I?
CAESAR
Who am I to say? I am only Caesar. You are Brutus.
BRUTUS
I will fight tomorrow. If we lose, I will die as well as you did. Chin up, like Cato. I will accept the consequences of my actions. That’s how Brutus dies.
A glow creeps in - the sun is beginning to rise. Looking at it, BRUTUS starts chuckling.
CAESAR
Is something amusing?
BRUTUS
I’m sorry, it’s just - I was afraid you’d come to kill me. Instead Caesar’s ghost has helped me decide how to end my life. I’m relieved. No more muddle. I see clearly now. A fitting revenge.
CAESAR
That is not why I came.
BRUTUS
(surprised) No?
CAESAR
You kept my will.
BRUTUS
(picking up the will) I didn’t mean to show it to anyone.
CAESAR
I am here because of that. I am here because your mother shouted out the secret name of Rome. I am here because of my one regret.
BRUTUS
And that is?
CAESAR
I regret you were not my son.
BRUTUS
(astonished) What?
CAESAR
When I broke your engagement to Julia, I wounded you far more deeply than your knife cut me. I know you, Brutus. You really did - do - love her. You would not have wanted her to live an unhappy life. Especially one with you. Had I presented you the choice, you would have given her up willingly. Sacrifice is in your nature. But the blow would have been close to mortal. So I chose for you. For that, I ask your forgiveness.
BRUTUS
With her, I was always the person I dreamed I’d be. My life would have been so different…
CAESAR
We don’t know that. We are who we are.
BRUTUS
But not who we claim to be. Who we want to be. Poor, poor Portia. She loved me too much, that’s her tragedy. I think she knew I’d lost my only…
CAESAR
We both lost her. Daughter and sister, wife and mother. She was all these, and we all lost her. Pompey, too.
BRUTUS
If she was ever ours. We had that in common. Why didn’t we ever talk of it? It was a wall between us. It should have been a bridge. We, who loved her best.
CAESAR
Now she belongs to neither of us.
BRUTUS
At least you gave her happiness. I gave her nothing but sorrow.
CAESAR
Her happiness was your sole desire. Whereas I did only what I thought necessary.
BRUTUS
I thought motives didn’t matter.
CAESAR
They matter to us. Can you forgive me?
BRUTUS
What happens if I say no?
CAESAR
There are no consequences. It is just a choice. The gods will not punish you. The hardest thing is to live with the choice once it’s made.
BRUTUS
Then this once, I choose to be the man I say I am. Caesar, I forgive you. With all my heart. (beat) Do you--?
BRUTUS
Nothing to forgive, my son.
A bugle sounds.
BRUTUS
Dawn. The armies will be in place. Soon I’ll be facing another Caesar. One I do not love half so well.
CAESAR
Love. You know, of course, why Roma’s secret name goes unspoken. Because it is so powerful. Roma. Reverse the letters. A. M. O. R.
BRUTUS
Amor. Love.
CAESAR
When you killed me, you did it with love - for me, for Rome. So long as such love exists, so shall Roma. Slowly, Brutus holds out his arms.
CAESAR
My son.
They embrace. A series of images flash around them, of war, of loss, of BRUTUS killing himself, the ghost of Caesar watching ominously. The sounds of marching and orders, then horses, steel on steel, cannons, gunfire, aircraft strafing, and explosions. Then silence.
ANTONY (V.O.)
This was the Noblest Roman of them all:
All the Conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the Elements
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world ‘This was a man!’
THE END
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES
It’s hard to think of any historical figure more redeemed with the stroke of a playwright’s pen than Brutus. Before Shakespeare’s play, he lived in an icy lake at the bottom of Hell. Dante gave Lucifer three mouths, allowing the Devil to chew forever history’s greatest betrayers: Judas Iscariot, Caius Cassius, and Brutus. Right through the Renaissance, Brutus was a villain, the treasonous coward who killed perhaps the greatest military and political leader the world had ever known.
Yet in an act of brazen daring, Shakespeare turns Brutus into a hero.
We all agree that Shakespeare’s play is Brutus’ story. For a piece entitled THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JULIUS CAESAR, it’s astonishing how little of Caesar there actually is — no Consulship, no pirate ship, no Gaul, no Civil War, no Pompey, no Cleopatra. We pick up at the end of the dictatorship, mere days before his death. Alas, Caesar was far too successful in his life to be made into a tragic hero. So Shakespeare, in his brilliance, turns 1600 years of history on its head, transforming Caesar into a half-deaf epileptic narcissist and instead making his play about Brutus, the honorable man. It is incedibly subversive, a remarkable feat of daring.
If there is one glaring dramatic fault in Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR, it is the lack of interaction between Brutus and Caesar themselves. Shakespeare’s audience was much more knowledgeable about Roman history, so he could take for granted that the nuances would be understood. Today we are not so well informed of the great and twisted personal relationship these men had. We do not know why Brutus repeatedly says he loves Caesar, nor do we see how they got to the point where murder is necessary, where Brutus believes that it indeed ‘must be by his death’. As I am always drawn to gaps in stories, this was a siren’s call I could not resist.
Like everyone else, I learned about Brutus and Caesar from Shakespeare. What a reveleation it was when, on a car trip with my father, I listened to an audiobook of The First Man In Rome by Colleen McCullough. Her research is so thorough, her characterizations so mesmerizing, I found myself forevermore fascinated with all things Roman. If I lear
ned about Brutus and Caesar from Shakespeare, I learned about Rome from McCullough. My take on the people, customs, and times are 90% derived from her excellent series of books. She has been accused of admiring Caesar too much. It’s a fault shared by the vast majority of Romans, both then and now.
Reading McCullough sent me off on an exploration of Plutarch, Suetonius, Livy and the rest. As I delved further and further into history, I began to resent Shakespeare for his treatment of Caesar. Like McCullough, like so many others before me, I grew to admire and respect this amazing man. And I began to look at the play, not in terms of what is in it, but what is left out of it.
One set of circumstances I’ve consciously adopted from her books for dramatic effect. She was the first writer I know that suggested Brutus was engaged to Caesar’s daughter. The affair with Brutus’ mother is fact. But for me, using Julia as a stand-in for Roma herself was just too apt to ignore. And it makes a two-hour play about politics more tolerable.
For the rest, I’ve tried to straddle history and Shakespeare. No, Antony never gave the famous oration. Instead he passed a pardon for Brutus and the others. But the fact remains that when the tide of public opinion turned, Antony turned with it. That he was a follower and not a leader does not affect this play. I do far worse things to him here, so I do make reference to his speech to the Plebs. It’s the least I can do.
Naturally, there is an ongoing echo of Roman times in Western culture. We’ve seen it time and again, and are in the midst of it now. I did not set out to write a polemic on modern politics, but in the readings and public performances I’ve heard the audience laughter and understood that they were hearing strong resonances with our current times. To which I can only say, we modeled ourselves on Rome. Should be be surprised when we act out their rise and fall? Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.
♦ ◊ ♦
I owe many personal thanks:
To Ed, Grant, Mike and the rest of the cast, for breathing such life into the roles.
To Joe and Bonnie, for welcoming us in to play on their stages.
To Rob Kauzlaric, who after playing the role on and off for a decade with me will always be the voice of Brutus in my head.
To my wife Jan, who let me direct Caesar a decade ago and ever since has helped me explore both Rome and Shakespeare, in words and in person.
Most of all, to Rick Sordelet, my partner in crime and best of friends, for wanting to take the random misfires of my brain and turn them into art. Thank you.
Ave,
DB
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