Catch This: Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar is one of those plays that people seem to loathe from reading in high school. But the play has a lot of cool lines:

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."

"The evil that men do lives after them / the good is oft interred with their bones."

"I am constant as the northern star." 

Charlton Heston as Caesar. What's with the hair?

Moreover, it's one of the best examples of what makes Shakespeare good. The characters are complex, flawed and very often divided against themselves. However, in Caesar, as with many of his other political dramas, these tendencies are brought out into a public stage. Instead of one's lover or children to contend with, Caesar and his conspirators are attempting to direct an empire in the midst of their own problems. It exacerbates their troubles and projects them onto history. 

It kind of makes one's own troubles seem a little easier. Yours will too when you learn more about Freehold's Engaged Theatre program, which brings professional theatre productions into Washington state prisons. Read our interview with program direcotr Robin Lynn Smith.

As part of Freehold Theatre's Engage Theatre Tour, the group is holding three public performances of the play through this weekend with a "pay what you can price" at the Seward Park Amphitheatre and the Broadway Performance Hall. 

One more line:

"Cowards die many times before their deaths / The valiant never taste of death but once."

Seward Park Amphitheatre, 5898 Lake Washington Blvd S.

Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway