Have Shakespeare, will travel
First-rate Julius Caesar here Friday night



It isn’t every day that top-notch Shakespeare comes to The Prizery.
But that’s because most groups of Aquila Theatre’s stature don’t go to the boonies: Statesboro, Ga.; Batavia, Ill.; Orono, Maine; South Boston, Va.
But then there are its more urbane settings: Denver; Stanford University; Edinburgh, Scotland; Greece; Hungary.
“We try not to distinguish between communities,” said Peter Meineck, the group’s founder and artistic director, a transplanted Brit now based in New York City. If anything, he said, the small towns provide “richer experiences” because the venues are intimate and the playgoers are more excited and appreciative.
“There’s an awful lot of snobbery in the arts and it’s going to kill the arts,” Meineck lamented in a crisp London accent.
Hence the quote from Meineck: “… Aquila believes that the greatest works should be seen by the greatest number” plastered on the group’s website.
If it sounds egalitarian, it’s meant to.
Aquila, founded in 1991 with actors from boths sides of the Atlantic, takes the likes of Shakespeare and Chaucer and Heller to about 70 cities a year. There are also European tours, and the group hopes to go to China next year. Indeed, even the name – Aquila, eagle, – implies leadership, nobility, noblesse oblige.
The staging for Julius Caesar promises to be neo-classical, he said, following The Bard’s lead with a mix of ancient and Elizabethan costuming.
The moral quandaries, the abuse-of-power issues in Julius Caesar – Meineck finds the tragedy possibly “more interesting” than it was 400 years ago. Aquila’s production asks the audience to consider the price of democracy, freedom and the consequences that can befall a society when it is asked to defend its core beliefs.
Aquila’s works are well received.
Gushes the New York Times: “…an extraordinarily inventive and disciplined outfit ….” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “… magic there is aplenty.”
“Succeeds in using sheer theatricality to illuminate the dark center of an extremely dark play . . .” raved The Washington Post, adding, of a Julius Caesar production, “talk about your perfect Washington play.”
Meineck may or may not zip down to South Boston this weekend to assess the performance; he’s a busy man. Also a professor of classics at New York University, his academic appointments have included positions at Harvard, Princeton and the University of California at San Diego. He has also translated the ancient classics: Aristophanes, Sophocles and Theban plays. His Oresteia was awarded the 2000 Louis Galantiere Award by the American Translators Association.
Julius Caesar is Friday, Oct. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in The Prizery’s Chastain Theatre as a part of An Affair of the Arts, sponsored by the Parsons-Bruce Art Association. For ticket sales, call The Prizery at 572-8339 or visit its website.