The RSC are back in the North East with a touring version of Julius Caesar visiting Northallerton just before the winter residency in Newcastle. Viv Hardwick reports on the updated Shakespeare play which promises plenty for all.

PUTIN'S Russia or even Berlusconi's Italy could be the backdrop for a contemporary Royal Shakespeare Company version of Julius Caesar which is highly-likely to play to sell-out audiences at its Northallerton debut next month.

Directed by critically-acclaimed David Farr, the fashionable use of pieces of film are included in the staging plus a few surprises as the idea is developed of a group of actors trying to create Shakespeare's play in a town run by a fictitious emerging democracry.

Farr says: "I'm aiming to make it clear from the beginning that it's a company of actors telling the story, and to be honest about the fact that it's a play. I'm hoping in this way that the audience will become actively involved in the play.

"I want it to be a contemporary production and to find a way in which the play will resonate with today's audience. The play is set within an emerging and fragile democracy where there's a closeness to war. These are modern political examples of unconditional power, it's interesting, for example, how the Russians have allowed Putin to become a benevolent dictator as the Italians have with Berlusconi.

"I do want to emphasise that I'm determined to keep it as a fast-paced thriller with a lot of action."

On the prospect of returning to the North-East's Hambleton Leisure Centre sports hall, following the success of Coriolanus last year, Farr says: "I remember the excitement of coming to a place that is not a conventional theatre - like a gym, school or sports hall. There's a terrific sense of event when we enter the place, and I'm planning to use this much more with this production."

Actor Christopher Saul - who combines RSC work with stints in TV's Coronation Street, Dr Who, Doctors and London's Burning - plays the title role and also features as the Duke of Milan for Fiona Buffini's The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, which shares part of the tour. He's glad to have got beyond the "bum-numbing exercise" when directors and cast discuss the characters. Saul reveals that Two Gents has a 1930s film set feel to it as opposed to the contemporary Caesar which "I can assure you, will not be a conventional one.

"David (Farr) plans to spring a few surprises, not only on us in rehearsal, but on the audience when we come to perform it for them." On his TV appearances he recalls about 1980s BBC1 sea ferry soap Triangle that he took on the role of chief purser from Kate O'Mara.

"The director, Marc Miller, offered me the part for the following two series as a bit of a challenge. It's strange, but I don't think I was as popular as Kate was in the part. I hope that's not sexist, but perhaps I didn't have quite the same assets.

In Doctor Who, I had a small part in two episodes of a story called The Awakening with Peter Davidson. I found the scripts and filming schedules in the attic the other day and wondered if anyone would be interested in buying them. Maybe I could give Ebay a go."

Daughter of famous actor Ronald Pickup, Rachel, makes her RSC debut as Portia in Caesar and will be Silvia in The Two Gents.

She speaks of the excitement associated with her parents' careers, although her mother writes rather than acts at present, and attending six schools.

"The best was in Rome, my mother taught my brother and I while my father was making a film out there," Rachel says but explains that she went into the profession with her eyes wide open.

"My parents never painted a rosy picture of it, if anything they tried to dissuade me from it. I was always very aware of the precariousness of it, but ultimately both of them have always been wonderfully supportive especially in the bleak times when I've done horrible temp jobs in order to pay the bills. They also both knew nothing could have put me off doing it, so nothing could deter me either."

After the RSC tour, which takes in 15 leisure centres and schools plus Davidson College, North Carolina, USA, Rachel hopes to film a contemporary sitcom for the BBC.

On the prospect of touring with the world's best-known theatre company she adds: "I've never seen the RSC's mobile tour, but friends have and one friend who comes from Jersey said that when the RSC visited, when he was growing up, it really influenced him hugely - I think it's partially responsible for him becoming an actor. What I'm personally excited about is the fact that it's not just doing the standard theatre touring circuit. It's taking theatre to people who want it and it's an 'event' and that's what it should be in an ideal world. I'm really looking forward to it."

* Julius Caesar plays Hambleton Leisure Centre, Northallerton, the week of September 14-September 18. Box Office: 01609 777070.

There is a pre-performance event on September 17 at 11am which costs £2.

Drector David Farr is tackling a new version of The Odyssey for Bristol and Leeds' West Yorkshire Playhouse and currently writing an episode of BBC's Spooks.

Published: 19/08/2004