The Brussels Shakespeare Society presents Julius Caesar directed by Emily Bowles.

With a few brief exceptions, Rome’s proud boast was that it had been a republic for several hundred years. But the familiar internal strains of Left and Right – the ‘Plebeians’ versus the wealthy ‘Patrician’ families – had always been there. They came to a head in 44 BCE with Caesar, a deeply ambitious Roman general, the darling of his troops and of the Roman populace who had benefited from the spoils of his foreign conquests. It suited him well to be seen in that light, even though he himself was descended from one of Rome’s oldest Patrician families, the Claudian line. Does this seem familiar…?

Tickets available at https://thelittleboxoffice.com/bss.

Director: Esther Pozo Vera. 5th to 9th of November

Venue: La Maison Qui Chante, Rue Viaduc 122, 1050 Ixelles

Set in a fictional modern-day America under an ultra-conservative religious regime, this production explores the State’s control over private life, sexual morality, and personal freedom. It delves into questions of consent, hypocrisy, and the tension between mercy and strict moral judgment—issues as urgent today as in Shakespeare’s time. The production contains mature references to sexuality, religious belief, and power dynamics.

For student groups of 10 students or more, contact us via bss.boxoffice@gmail.com to benefit from the special large-group student discount. 

TICKETS HERE

Antony and Cleopatra will play at the Jacques Frank theatre from 19 to 23 May. Set as a ‘future history’ in the 2030s, the show will portray a modern-day autocrat, Octavian, facing off against the lovers of the title in a battle for the soul of Europe. Get your tickets now!

In our shows, we like to highlight Shakespearean themes that might be more relevant for modern audiences. As our October 2024 show Measure for Measure considered how sexuality intersects with power and as our January 2024 show Julius Caesar explored how populism subverts democracy, Antony and Cleopatra will focus on how disinformation and AI, if left unchecked, could serve as a road leading from populism to dictatorship.

Historians note that Gaius Octavius’ war against his rival Antony was in part a disinformation war, and arguably one of the most successful disinformation wars in history. Among many examples, he compelled the Roman Senate in 32 BC to declare war against Cleopatra, not Antony. By doing so, he portrayed a Roman civil war as a fight against Egypt, a devious foreign enemy. His narratives lived on in his memoirs, now lost to us. But they influenced later accounts that survived, most famously Plutarch’s Life of Antony. Many centuries later, Shakespeare would use Plutarch’s work as the basis for his play.

Had Shakespeare been a lesser genius, he might have repeated the disinformation narratives about Cleopatra that Octavian Caesar Augustus promoted. But he could not help but portray Cleopatra as a real human being, with her own goals, passions, and contradictions. Among other themes, Antony and Cleopatra will explore this tension in a text that, at times, seems ambivalent about whether Cleopatra was an evil archetype or a tragic heroine.

TICKETS HERE