London Grilling: Max Lewendel, Director of Julius Caesar, a new production now showing at Southwark Playhouse

What happens when you take a classic Shakespearean play and set it somewhere in the near future? Do the themes of power, politics, and betrayal still ring through in modern society? Max Lewendel, the creative mind behind this retelling of a classic tale, proves that some things never change.

This powerful and poignant production is not to be missed.

Photo credit: Adrian Warner.

Hi Max, we are very excited about the show! Tell us, what makes this different to the story of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as we know it?

It’s as far as you can get from the stuffy, dry retelling that many will have been force-fed at school.  This is Shakespeare the way it was meant to be: this was the Elizabethan version of cinema, and the right thing to do is to irreverently update the setting to be in a modern, digital world, with such an extensive special effects design, geared towards helping even those who hated Shakespeare the most to understand, and feel part of the unfolding story.

What inspired this modern twist to a classic?

Modern war and media.  We live in a world so consumed and wrapped up in the next tiktok post, the next insta, the next whatever that we never stop to look at whether what we’re reading is the truth.  In the real ancient Rome, Caesar was the king of fake news.  He mocked his foes, lied as if breathing, and pretended to be a figure for the religious masses, when all he really wanted was ultimate power. 

How did you work with the cast to bring out the contemporary relevance of the themes in the show?

We all looked at the history, and its similarities to now, and workshopped with the cast what this world would be like.  This is just as much their creation as it is mine, the designers, my assistant’s or anyone else’s.

Were there any challenges you faced in reimagining this play for a modern audience?

More than could possibly be believed!  What audiences are about to see involved over 10,000 separate digital elements, each of which had to be specifically created and placed on stage like you would for a sci-fi film, but without the resources of Hollywood, or even of a West End show.  We all worked long nights and I can’t thank my design team enough for their relentless pursuit of this vision.

What set designs have you introduced to convey the modern world aesthetic?

It’s not the set design, but the video.  The set needed to bend to the will of the graphic design, and hats off to Flavio Graff for giving us such a malleable and inventive canvas.

How do you think this production adds to the ongoing conversations about power, politics, and betrayal in today’s society?

Those that do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.  I hope our production casts some light on how similar the path we are on is to paths trodden by Caesar, Hitler, and so many others across time.  Always, absolute power and violence has led to unprecedented corruption, war, and death.

What do you hope the audience takes away after watching this production?

Mostly, I hope they have an exciting night of theatre.  If they also look more deeply into how they vote, how to protest, and how to spread truth, I would be overjoyed.

You have over a decade of experience, what are some of your most memorable productions?

This one is hands-down the most memorable, the most challenging to bring to stage.  Leading us here have been our production of The Lesson which experimented with the fledgling version of this technology, our productions of Othello and HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness which used cast and design elements in a truly collaborative manner, working with the world around them as if the set, musical instruments, sound, and lighting were all living, breathing entities on stage with them, that reacted slightly differently every night.

What are some of your favourite shows to see on London’s West End?

Oh wow, what a big question!  We have to stretch back a ways for some of my favourites.  Blood Brothers was amazing, and shaped my early inventiveness in how to handle text.  The Bacchai at the National Theatre told me of how to get a highly sensualised experience into every production.  Rose Wars (a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Henry trilogy) was an exciting journey into modern takes on Shakespeare.

Where do you go in London to find inspiration?

In London, I go to Regent’s Park, the V&A museum, and try to get to the theatre as often as I can.  Outside London, my wife and I have a lovely little garden that we tend to, and sip gin and tonics. She – and the home we have built together – are my greatest inspiration.

Julius Caesar opens tomorrow, September 6th at Southwark Playhouse and will run until October 5th. Book your tickets here.