Reviews for The Crack in the Emerald: New Irish Plays

The average rating for The Crack in the Emerald: New Irish Plays based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-01 00:00:00 Gabriella Martinelli Caesar and Cleopatra is a play of vivid pictures and superb effects: in the desert at night an old Roman general speaks to a small Sphinx, oblivious to the child-woman asleep between its paws; the child-woman Cleopatra chooses the old general as her protector, against Caesar "who eats children," not realizing, until the Romans troops begin shouting "Hail Caesar" that her old general and Caesar are one in the same; Caesar arming himself for battle while the Library of Alexandria is burning in the background; Cleopatra in a carpet, unrolled and revealed to a surprisingly indifferent Caesar; Caesar and Cleopatra swimming to safety; a female assassin, with her throat cut, crumpled before an altar, is disclosed when a curtain is pulled back; amid the splendor of Caesar's farewell procession, Cleopatra and her women appear, dressed in black. It possesses great dialogue and believable characters too. Shaw would tolerate no "thees and thous" in his historical plays, for he believed that the people of past ages were pretty much like ourselves, no better or worse. The Sicilian noblemen Apollodorus resembles a fin de siecle poet, Rufio is a typical gruff old campaigner, Cleopatra's servant Ftatateeta is a fiercely loyal governess, and Caesar's secretary Britannus already embodies the smug certainties and blindspots of a late 19th century Englishman. Caesar and Cleopatra is also great because'like the later Pygmalion'it shows us a great teacher and an apt pupil at work. Even as a child'or perhaps because she is a child'Cleopatra shows an appetite for violence and revenge. Caesar senses she has the capacity to be a great ruler, and takes pains to teach her that mercy and clemency are much more effective in the long run. Unlike Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Shaw's play is not about passion but politics. I think, though, that the principal reason why this play is great is because it gives us the convincing portrait of a great man in the person of Caesar. Childlike, but without a child's malice, detached yet interested in everything, his comprehensive sympathies and wide-ranging intellect are open to the whole world, and because of this the world rarely gets the best of him. I will conclude with an excerpt in which Cleopatra tells Caesar she ordered the death of the disloyal minister Pothinus, and Caesar reacts to what Cleopatra has told him. CAESAR. What has happened to Pothinus? I set him free, here, not half an hour ago. Did they not pass him out? LUCIUS. Ay, through the gallery arch sixty feet above ground, with three inches of steel in his ribs. He is as dead as Pompey. We are quits now, as to killing'you and I. CAESAR. (shocked). Assassinated!'our prisoner, our guest! (He turns reproachfully on Rufio) Rufio' RUFIO (emphatically'anticipating the question). Whoever did it was a wise man and a friend of yours (Cleopatra is qreatly emboldened); but none of US had a hand in it. So it is no use to frown at me. (Caesar turns and looks at Cleopatra.) CLEOPATRA (violently'rising). He was slain by order of the Queen of Egypt. I am not Julius Caesar the dreamer, who allows every slave to insult him. Rufio has said I did well: now the others shall judge me too. (She turns to the others.) This Pothinus sought to make me conspire with him to betray Caesar to Achillas and Ptolemy. I refused; and he cursed me and came privily to Caesar to accuse me of his own treachery. I caught him in the act; and he insulted me'ME, the Queen! To my face. Caesar would not revenge me: he spoke him fair and set him free. Was I right to avenge myself? Speak, Lucius. LUCIUS. I do not gainsay it. But you will get little thanks from Caesar for it... CLEOPATRA (passionately). I will be judged by your very slave, Caesar. Britannus: speak. Was I wrong? BRITANNUS. Were treachery, falsehood, and disloyalty left unpunished, society must become like an arena full of wild beasts, tearing one another to pieces. Caesar is in the wrong. CAESAR (with quiet bitterness). And so the verdict is against me, it seems. CLEOPATRA (vehemently). Listen to me, Caesar. If one man in all Alexandria can be found to say that I did wrong, I swear to have myself crucified on the door of the palace by my own slaves. CAESAR. If one man in all the world can be found, now or forever, to know that you did wrong, that man will have either to conquer the world as I have, or be crucified by it. (The uproar in the streets again reaches them.) Do you hear? These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengeance and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. If you doubt it, ask your four counselors here. And then in the name of that RIGHT (He emphasizes the word with great scorn.) shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less then than slay these slayers too, to show the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor? And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-28 00:00:00 Len Gustafson Lovely play but I was at a loss to imagine a successful staging. This is vast and epic while insistently self aware, emplacing it's own sense of history upon a lineage we believe to know from another play by that one guy. The characterization of Cleopatra as a petulant teen was remarkable'especially in contrast to a stolid weariness from Julius Caesar. The role of vengeance as a historical engine is explored as is the all too human notions of sovereignty. I should read more Shaw.