BareBones Youth Past Production
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
adapted by Dave Baldwin
The Production
This summer workshop production took twenty-seven young actors and, during a five day period, shaped them into the characters of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The young people studied and rehearsed the roles and, supported by stage directors, costumiers and technicians, polished the production for a single public, open air, promenade style presentation on the evening of Thursday 31st August. The workshop and production took place at Bishopswood House, a Victorian mansion house in forty acres of rolling Herefordshire countryside.
The text was shortened to a running time of around an hour and concentrated upon the development of the conspiracy, the assasination and the addresses to the crowd from Brutus and Cassius. The subsequent battles between the allied forces of Cassius and Brutus and those of Antony and Octavius were simply reported by a narrator. And what a wonderful week we had. In the five days of the workshop we had just two minutes of light rain. On the evening of the performance the weather looked threatening but it stayed dry and warm for the performance and the picnic which followed. Around a hundred people saw a splendid performance from young people who had spent five glorious days in fun and friendship with people of like mind. Let's do it again next year!
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Cast and Crew
The Cast
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The Crew
| Stage Manager | Richard Worrall |
| Assistant Directors | Margarret Baldwin |
| Loraine Worrall | |
| Costume & Props. | Penelope Timms |
| Stella Truscott | |
| Claire Millinczuk | |
| Sound | Ian Pauley |
| Front of House | Miriam Seal |
Our grateful thanks to the Freeman family for allowing us the use of the magnificent Bishopswood House
Reviews
Peter Terson in The Ross Gazette 7th Seprember 2006
The Bare Bones of Julius Caesar
I knew of the growing reputation of the BARE BONES Youth Theatre, with their productions of Bugsy Malone, Willie Russell's Our Day Out and others, but nothing prepared me for the impact of their open air production of Julius Caeser at Bishopswood House.
They were simply magnificent and brought a dignity and maturity to the parts that belied their years.
The grounds of Bishopswood provided a wonderful backdrop for the streets of Rome, the Senate and the Forum and with fine ensemble playing the company revelled in it.
In his adaptation Dave Baldwin boldly left intact some of the magnificent, challenging speeches.
Christopher Keer sensitively delivered the tormented musing of the honourable Brutus, whilst Maddy Malone's rousing of the mob in the funeral oration of Mark Anthony moved even the audience to rebellion.
All in all this was a memorable evening and if these young actors continue to develop it bodes well for the future of the Bare Bones Company.
I was told that the Youth Theatre had worked intensively on this production for only five days. A great achievement.
