Julius Caesar

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Andrew Buchan, Sean Barrett

Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s most compelling Roman plays. The plot against Caesar and the infamous assassination scene make for unforgettable listening. Brutus, the true protagonist of the play, is mesmerizing in his psychological state of anguish, forced to choose between the bonds of friendship and his desire for patriotic justice.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2012 Naxos AudioBooks

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars

I think that reading Shakespeare's plays does not do them justice - they aren't meant to be read, they are meant to be performed, and seen performed. However, you also miss a lot if you aren't already familiar with the context and the Shakespearean language, because of course ol' Will packs a lot into every single line.

So, this is the famous play about the conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar, fearing his ambition to become king. Among the famous lines to which we owe this play: "Et tu, Brutus?" "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." And "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Mark Antony's speech is probably the highlight of the play. Having just been informed of Caesar's death, and with the assassins having convinced the Roman public that they'd saved Rome from a tyrant, Mark Antony gives his famous speech which is a masterpiece of mob manipulation, turning them against the conspirators and in favor of the slain Caesar.

The conflicts are patriotism versus friendship, loyalty versus ideals, and the taint of self-interest always present in one's motives. As a tragedy, this is one of those Shakespearean plays where almost everyone ends up falling on a sword one way or the other.

Brutus is clearly the protagonist, but I think Mark Antony wins it.

Performances were clear and dramatic in this production. Not quite as good as seeing the play, but all the action is clear enough with minimal sound effects.

Absolutely Comes Alive

Any additional comments?

I've dabbled in Shakespeare ever since school, but whilst finding the plays dramatically and thematically interesting, the language is often somewhat inaccessible. Hence the dabbling.

I have also always been very interested in the history of ancient Rome. I've read Julius Caesar's "Conquest of Gaul", visited the ruins of ancient Rome, watched the old BBC adaptation of "I, Claudius" (which is beyond my words to describe how fabulous it is). Read books on Cicero and countless documentaries.

So these two elements combined were fantastic for me.

This audiobook was on sale and although short (but unabridged) is BOGO well spent.

Incredibly good performance by the audio actors. A few sound effects here and there to give a little color and to punctuate certain events that we cannot see, but not so many as to distract from the dialogue.

Just perfect. Brings this play to life and makes it very accessible, at least to me.

I enjoyed it so much I'm looking to see what other options are available in the same series.

Heartily recommended.

Plays as audio only

Books as audio are wonderful. Radio dramas i.e. Old time radio also fine. BUT plays as audio only are difficult to follow.
If i was not some what familiar with the story i would have been lost. Performers were fine, just difficult to follow without visiual clues.

Well done

This a very well done version of the classic tale and the full cast really brings the play to life. Well worth a listen.

The Poetry of Politics, Friendship, and Duty

Cassius is eager to recruit Brutus for his preemptive strike on Julius Caesar, before Caesar's "ambition" may harm Rome by becoming the tyranny of a crown. The thundering and flaming ill omens warn everyone to take a quiet time out, but, although Brutus loves Caesar, he loves Rome more, and so joins the conspiracy. Perhaps Brutus' feeling for Caesar causes guilt to undermine his instinct for self-preservation, for after the Ides of March assassination, he makes some stunning errors regarding Mark Antony, for instance allowing him to give his famous "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" rabble-rousing speech, punctuated by Antony's increasingly ironic claims that Brutus et al are honorable men, that it isn't the time or place to read Caesar's will, that he isn't an orator, and that he sure isn't inciting anyone to do anything violent against the conspirators. Then it's expeditiously on to the climactic Battle of the Four Armies at Philippi.

Shakespeare's play is fascinating in the complexity of its situation and characters. Cassius begins as a sneaky manipulator motivated from envy to kill Caesar and involve Brutus by any means necessary (including the tossing of fake incendiary letters through Brutus' window), but he becomes ennobled through love of Brutus and finally adopts Brutus' freedom from tyranny motive. Mark Antony begins as a feeling man motivated by grief and justice and ends a ruthless uber-politician greedy for power and capable of stirring up the masses, gloating, "Mischief, thou art afoot," and then having 70 or 100 senators executed to fund his army with their revenues. Brutus' words about his fears for Caesar's ambition apply most to Mark Antony: "The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins/ Remorse from power." And of course at the center stews the self-destructively noble Brutus.

Along with many deservedly famous speeches and lines, Shakespeare's rich language reveals many neat insights into human nature: how people subjectively interpret signs; how power corrupts and selfishness taints any action; how violence begets chaos and more violence; how intense situations stress friendships; and how flawed is human nature ("The fault" lying "in ourselves"). He also keeps the action moving swiftly. Even though this is very much a man's play, there is a potent scene between Brutus and his wife Portia in which she tries to plumb what ails him: "Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure?"

Shakespeare writes doubling scenes that comment on each other. There are obvious pairs, like Caesar and Calpurnia's exchange followed by Brutus and Portia's, Brutus' speech followed by Mark Antony's, or Mark Antony and Ocatvius' tete-a-tete followed by Brutus and Cassius', as well as some less obvious ones that would be easy to miss were one simply reading the play but which the dramatized Naxos version highlights (as a good theater version would). My favorite example is the comical opening scene when some aristocrats interrogate a punning cobbler paired with the horrifying scene when the enraged mob interrogates a frightened poet.

THIRD CITIZEN
Your name, sir, truly.
CINNA THE POET
Truly, my name is Cinna.
FIRST CITIZEN
Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator.
CINNA THE POET
I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.
FOURTH CITIZEN
Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses.
CINNA THE POET
I am not Cinna the conspirator.
FOURTH CITIZEN
It is no matter, his name's Cinna; pluck but his
name out of his heart, and turn him going.
THIRD CITIZEN
Tear him, tear him! Come, brands ho! fire-brands:
to Brutus', to Cassius'; burn all: some to Decius'
house, and some to Casca's; some to Ligarius': away, go!

Hearing the terrified and confused Cinna, the ruthless and frenzied citizens, and the violent sound effects, hits home that we are witnessing a mob tearing someone apart limb from limb, confronting us with the results of Mark Antony's "mischief."

The sound effects of the Naxos audiobook production of the play enhance its moods and immerse the listener in the dramatic world: thunder on the eve of the Ides of March, ominous crowd shouting noises at Caesar's funeral, wine pouring when Brutus and Cassius make up, eerie background noise for Caesar's ghost, war trumpets and marching soldiers and galloping horses for the battle, and so on. David Timson directs a stellar cast of actors (many with experience acting in the Bard's plays). Standouts are Sean Barrett as Caesar, Paul Rhys as Brutus, Pip Carter as Cassius, and Roy McMillan as various men. Of course, if you haven't read much Shakespeare or haven't before seen or read Julius Caesar, it would help if you had the text handy when listening to this audiobook, but the quality of the voice acting is such that even without reading along with the play I could mostly follow the action and--thanks also to clues in the characters' speeches--could usually understand who was speaking. This version of Julius Caesar, then, is excellent.

Shakespeare is like Beethoven

Or Bach. Or Chaucer. Or any great artist. Having studied them in high school or college, it's easy to assume that you "know" their output. You docket them as "great" and move on to other poets, other music, other things: life, job, kids.

Then one of those kids says he's reading Julius Caesar at school. Then Audible marks the Ides of March by offering this terrific recording as a Daily Deal. And you realize all over again how great Shakespeare really is.

Centuries before CGI, Shakespeare and his contemporaries did it all with language: dream sequences, crowd scenes, battles. Even in our casual, ironic, post-post-modern world, the greatness of that language can still stun us.

It was also nice to be reminded of which play contains most of Jeeves' best quotations.

A Piece of Work that Will Make Sick Men Whole.

“What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 1

Julius Caesar was one of my first Shakespeare loves. I remember in Jr High memorizing (and I still can remember most of it) Mark Anthony's eulogy to Caesar ("Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..." It was powerful and was an early indicator for me of language's potential energy. Within those lines there were several messages, foreshadowing, etc. It turned me onto both Shakespeare and the Classics. I'm now coming back to Julius Caesar 25+ years later. Hopefully a bit more mature. With a bit more body hair. Certainly, with more experience with Shakespeare, the Classics, and politics and the original JC. I've now read considerably Livy, Edward Gibbon, Suetonius, and probably most importantly Plutarch. But even with all of this 'source' material, the play itself still seems to capture the imagination in ways that history (both modern and ancient) can't. Shakespeare can tease out and nuance things (obviously made up) that gives live to Brutus, Caesar, Anthony.

It was ironic too that I was reading Julius Caesar right after (unplanned) the June controversy with the New York Public Theatre's production where they used a Trump-like character to play the part of Julius Caesar. The brouhaha could easily have been predicted. The closer our contemporary leaders become to actual tyrants, the harder it becomes for their supporters to digest their images being used to portray an assassinated Julius Caesar. The closer we edge to the end of the Republic, the more relevant and less popular Julius Caesar will be with those in tyrannical camps.

It all holds up. It still feels relevant and even a bit dangerous.

Favorite Lines:

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” (Act 1, Scene 2)

"But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.” (Act 1, Scene 2)

“...for the eye sees not itself,
but by reflection, by some other things.” (Act 1, Scene 2)

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!” (Act 3, Scene 1)

“Of your philosophy you make no use,
If you give place to accidental evils.” (Act 4, Scene 3)

I forgot how great this play is!

Truly wonderful rendition of one of the Bard's most famous works. I was drawn in like a underling and remembered some of best professor's lectures at the same time!

A very moving play

I have read this before, but this performance of the play was excellent. Very strong acting from the cast. Easy to understand, and a stirring drama that may have you changing sympathies more than once.

Excellent

A straightforward and absorbing production: crowd noises, the weather, the eerie sounds that echo through the streets of Rome on the eve of Caesar’s murder — all these work together to create a three-dimensional world. This is one of the best of the many excellent Naxos productions of Shakespeare. The “enhanced” version preserves the clarity and the stereo of the Naxos original. (It’s my impression, though it may be out of date, that most of the Naxos recordings on Audible are still in their original mono configuration. The stereo adds significant depth to the sound design.)

In general the cast sounds younger than usual, except for gravelly Sean Barrett as Julius Caesar. This is not a problem — it adds a refreshing dimension to the action and is in sharp contrast to the casting for the Arkangel version. My only complaint is that Andrew Buchan (Mark Antony), although he is mostly excellent, gives a surprisingly tame speech to the crowd after Caesar’s murder. This was a directorial choice that didn’t work for me.

Great performance

First time I've properly listened to Shakespeare, its much better to hear than to read.
Great performance and cast, Cassius was my favourite character (lovely voice!!)

Classic Shakespearean drama

This is a audio version of the play with clear declamatory language of high quality. I read it in conjunction with the text. Shakespeare need the spoken word, and ideally the stage. But imagination is a great compensation.

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superb from start to end.
so call the field to rest and let's away,
to park the glories of this happy day.