The banality of evil feels somehow central to the RSC’s latest production of Julius Caesar, which arrived at the Lowry last night. Of normal people - ‘all honourable men’ as Mark Antony says - doing terrible things.
In his debut for the company, director Atri Banerjee, an alumnus of the Royal Exchange, places his story of Roman treachery in what looks and feels like an office. And what could be more banal than that?
Whether this is intentional or not is unclear, but the parallels are striking. Banerjee’s Caesar (Nigel Barrett) is dressed like a schlubby manager, untucked and scruffy, with the rest of the cast wardrobed in the gamut of office attire ranging from the prissy boat neck work dress through to the chap from IT with the propensity for wacky shirts.
