Free performance set for 6 p.m. today in Scranto
By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
SCRANTON — Sixteen-year-old Izzy Deflice and 17-year-old Taryn Loney are wrestling each other on the floor of the Oppenheim Center.
Argh! They’re angry, and frustrated, fairly baring their teeth at each other.
But in this moment, they’re not really Izzy and Taryn. They’re Cassius and Brutus, two of the main characters in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” which REV Theatre will present at 6 p.m. today in the Oppenheim Center for the Arts, 1004 Jackson St., Scranton.
“Cassius and Brutus really get into it,” Taryn said, naming that very physical scene as her favorite. “It’s a real tussle.”
And maybe that tussle symbolizes the great political divide — sound familiar? — that exists in the play.
Just look at a cast photo and you’ll see several young actors holding signs that proclaim “Long Live Caesar” and “Vote 4 Caesar” and “Caesar For King” while others clutch the realistic-looking weapons they will soon use in rehearsal to assassinate the title character.
Describing the weapons, REV Theatre’s Rudy Caporaso, who is co-directing the play with Rosey Hay, said “they’re handmade from paper, which we made durable by wrapping and twisting a ton of duct tape around them. They’re completely safe and utterly believable.”
“We’re not espousing any kind of politics here,” Caporaso said. “But there’s a lot for the audience to think about: Does power corrupt? Can a change be maintained? Or do things revert; it is just a cycle that has to be repeated?”
For those unfamiliar with the story, some of its famous lines include a soothsayer warning Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March,” Caesar noting with a horrified “Et tu, Brute?” that even his friend Brutus is among the group of assassins who approach with weapons drawn; and Caesar’s loyal friend Marc Antony addressing the crowd with his “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech.
Brutus is drawn into the group of assassins not from greed, Taryn said, but because he has come to believe Caesar is dangerous for Rome. “He thinks he’s doing a good thing,” she said.
One person who disagrees with that assessment is 14-year-old Connor Griggs, who portrays Caesar and considers him “not a bad guy.”
“I get mad at them, when they’re killing me,” Connor said, with a glance around the room. “I think, I’m gonna come back and get them, when I’m a ghost.”
During the past eight years REV Theatre has staged 16 productions in Scranton, where it works in partnership with the United Neighborhood Centers to bring theater to underserved audiences. The 60-minute performance begins at 6 p.m. Feb. 1 in the Oppenheim Center for the Arts, and is free to the public.