Shakespeare - Blog

The play we have been studying is Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, it tells the story of a man called Julius Caesar and how he came to power and was assassinated by his most trusted advisors because they felt that he had too much power for one man. The scene that my group were involved in was where Caesar is persuaded by his wife Calphurnia to stay at home after she had a dream that he would die if he went to work, Decius whom I play is sent to fetch Caesar to the senate house only to arrive and find Caesar refusing to go to work and needing him to go so that the assassination can happen Decius works his magic and convinces Caesar that the dream Calphurnia had was actually a dream of good fortune for Caesar's fortune which in turn convinces him to go to work and complete Decius' part in the assassination plot.

During the first week we mostly spent our time trying to connect with our characters, to embody them. This included jumping into their shoes thinking how they would think and finding their stature, how they walk, talk, eat and how their facial expressions are displayed. This caused some tensions within my group (as we were all separated into different scenes that would then be compiled to create a birds eye view of the play) because we were all quite on edge with finding the character and trying out their emotions which can sometimes be difficult for an actor and as we only had two weeks to learn, block and perform these scenes it was somewhat harder and easier at the same time.

The challenges we faced in the first week were mostly down to the lack of lines learnt and that made it very hard to be able to animate a scene, as holding a script occupies your hands and your face as you are reading the lines. We managed to conquer this by learning a few lines at a time and then putting it all together and having only one of us as a prompt so that we didn't feel too much pressure over the lines and that made it all the more comfortable to just be free and easy with the scene. We also started to block scenes so that we could begin to associate certain movements with particular lines.

In week two we were a lot more panicked as it was all coming at us fast and we still had a lot to do, luckily we had all learnt our lines and so now were working on our facial expressions and our hand movements and figuring out how our character would react to the other characters lines and looking at the characters have to haves, what they need out of a scene. It was also a time for looking at costume and seeing what they would wear, because of the difference in status and the time period it meant we could do a lot. I wore all blacks and then a leather jacket to give the impression of an army style jacket, Joe wore a make-shift toga to give off the typical Caesar vibe and Alicia as Calphurnia wore all blacks to show how she is almost the mediator in the relationship and situation between Decius and Caesar.

In the final few days of putting these scenes together it was more or less just rehearsing and re-rehearsing the scenes to make sure that the scene was in order. When the day of the showcase came around we were all a little on edge which is fairly normal, and were both excited and nervous creating a brilliant atmosphere. The show was going well and then it was our turn and it started off well, then one of the group forgot their lines and skipped a big chunk of the scene, this was not a problem as we were prepared and just went onto the next bit and it went un noticed by the audience and turned out to be a good performance. I felt that my specific performance went a lot better than I thought it would and and was pleased with the outcome, I felt that I managed to convey the jealousy of Decius and the intent of the assassination without having that shown to Caesar and kept my agenda hidden. I wanted to work on how you could look at Decius and see the good friend of Caesar and then look at my eyes and see the dark plan behind the facade. Overall I was very pleased with my performance and enjoyed working on Julius Caesar with my group and learned a lot more about Shakespeare and the history of the play as well.

Decius - Character Study

Decius Brutus

A minor character in the play Julius Caesar Written by William Shakespeare and based on the real life events of Dictator Julius Caesar. Decius is an instigator to Julius Caesar's assassination and a Roman politician. He was also Caesar's cousin and was heir in the second degree to caesar in his will.

Decius plays a key role in the assasination of Julius Caesar as he is the one who persuades Caesar to come to the senate house after he had said he would not go due to his wifes worry over a dream she had of his death. Decius is one of the men who all join together to kill Caesar after Caska attacks him first and they eventually kill him and become his murderers.

Decuis is a very cunning character who knows just how to persuade people to go agains their own decisions to get his own way, the way he persuades Caesar to come to the senate after his wife calphurnia has begged on her knees that he stay home is a fairly good example of how he can make others trust him, even over those who are far closer to the subject that he is trying to seduce.

Decius seems to in a way distrust Caesar, even though he is his cousin. Decius treats Ceasar almost like a child recognising how in his own mind Caesar was not fit to be the Dictator of Rome and took it into his own hands, this could also be seen as jealousy from Decuis, himself thinking that he is the lowly cousin and wanting to have the power that Caesar has.

In Conclusion I think that Decius is a very messed up character he has had to live in the shadow of his cousin and feels so strongly about this that he even conspires and ends up killing his cousin Caesar. We also note that Decius is a very deceptive person and incredibly talented at persuading people to do what he requires them to do, or to gain information from them. This overall makes Decius a very intersting character even though his part is limited without his persuasive talents Ceasar would never have been assasinated and so in turn the entire outcome of the play is due to Decuis' cunning persuasive gift.