Shakespeare company brings tragedy to Germantown City Hall

Photo by Kyle Kurlick // Buy this photo

Vanessa Morosco (foreground) portrays Cassius in an all-female "Julius Caesar" being performed through April 11 in Germantown City Hall by the Tennessee Shakespeare Company.

A pair of lovely women in flowing pastel-colored dresses stand in the city of Germantown's municipal building, daggers strapped to their hips.

In a few minutes, they plan to walk into city hall and take part in the stabbing of a beloved female politician.

Their group will not "cut the head off and then hack the limbs" as butchers might do. They will instead behave as "sacrificers," carving their victim like a "dish fit for the gods."

Photo by Kyle Kurlick

Vanessa Morosco (foreground) portrays Cassius in an all-female "Julius Caesar" being performed through April 11 in Germantown City Hall by the Tennessee Shakespeare Company.

Threats of assassination might set off alarm bells for Germantown's longtime mayor, Sharon Goldsworthy, except that she and the entire Board of Aldermen are in on the murderous plot.

For the next two weeks, this troupe of armed and dangerous women will conduct their "bleeding business" -- with the city's full approval -- as the Tennessee Shakespeare Company presents its environmental theater production of "Julius Caesar."

The company's artistic director, Dan McCleary, compares the show to one audiences would have seen in Shakespeare's time.

"It's based on the Elizabethan version of a bus-and-truck show," McCleary said. "Often, after the theater season in London, a group of seven to 10 actors, all men, would travel the country performing plays. The best places to put on a show were city halls. They had platforms, big chairs that could be used as thrones, and seating for an audience."

However, it's not just the municipal setting that McCleary says gives Shakespeare buffs a reason to revisit "Julius Caesar."

An all-female cast provides fresh context for the iconic political masterpiece.

"When you hear a famous text in a way that challenges the status quo -- when we strip it down in a way that allows a woman's perspective on violence, love, death, birth, we hear the play in a very new way," McCleary said at last Saturday's dress rehearsal.

New York actress Vanessa Morosco, who plays Cassius, said her first reading of the gender-revised script expanded her thinking about honor and femininity.

Take this famous line, adapted for women, spoken by Antony of Caesar:

"Her life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in her that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a woman!"

Morosco said it quickly made the play very personal to her.

"It tells us that gender doesn't determine what roles we play," she said. "I've had to start thinking of myself as a warrior. But it doesn't mean we're also not female. Probably the biggest difference is that you'll see these characters being more passionate and emotional. I can't imagine seeing men in these roles crying openly onstage."

Germantown City Hall is a large wood and brick room seating 164 people, including nine open seats where the mayor and aldermen sit. McCleary says the show has been a year and a half in the making.

"I've never known a municipal government as open-minded and courageous," he said. "Shakespeare is starting to become a bit more woven into the community."

"Julius Caesar" by Tennessee Shakespeare Company

Runs through April 11 at Germantown City Hall, 1930 Germantown Road S. Shows are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $24-$36. Call 759-0604.

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