African-inspired retelling of Shakespeare’s great thriller will open this winter at Omnibus Theatre. We sat down with Roland, the actor performing multiple roles including Caesar himself.
This is your professional stage debut. How does it feel to be stepping into Shakespeare through such a bold, African-inspired adaptation?
It feels great! I think Shakespeare is really hard to enjoy if you don’t bring it alive somehow and infuse it with something intentional or unique. It’s been a conscious effort to create this version of Julius Caesar in our own way, pulling from all of the cast and creative team’s backgrounds and truths. The rehearsal room has been filled with creativity and expression, and hopefully people see that in this production.
You play multiple roles, including Caesar himself; how do you navigate shifting between such contrasting figures on stage?
The circumstances for all the characters are so different, and the writing does a really good job guiding you in which direction to take them. I feel inspired to explore each character in a unique way. It’s fun—you get to express different sides of yourself as an actor within the same production.
What surprised you most about embodying Julius Caesar, a character who is both revered and vulnerable?
What’s surprised me most is how timeless Julius Caesar is. I think we tend to think we’re living in the most extreme times. But when you look at someone like Caesar and what he represented to so many people—both good and bad—you start to realize humans are very cyclical. The idea of total power and control hasn’t gone away; it keeps resurfacing. Understanding how one gets to that point has been a really inspiring challenge.
How has working with live music and movement shaped your understanding of Shakespeare’s text?
It’s essential. Man, if you just stand up and try to deliver Shakespeare for 90-plus minutes without understanding how it lives and moves in your body—or how it’s inherently musical, not just in the meter but in the images and the grandeur—you’re in for a long, dry show. So the music and movement have been critical. It’s hard to make dope art if you’re not inspired. Julius Caesar has been done thousands of times, but the music and movement element brings it alive for me, and I think for everyone else in the show too. Shakespeare is tough; the creative team has made our jobs as actors infinitely easier.
What do you hope audiences unfamiliar with Shakespeare take away from seeing this reimagined Julius Caesar?
The more unfamiliar, the better. Shakespeare comes with a lot of baggage. It can be hard to understand and can feel inaccessible. So if you’re unfamiliar, hopefully you just get caught up in the story and walk away glad you spent your time watching it. If you are familiar, I hope you can still come in open and participate in our version—whether you usually enjoy Shakespeare or not.
Has this production changed how you think about power and betrayal in our own time?
Yeah, for sure. As I said before, the story of Julius Caesar is timeless. The temptation for power and control is hard for some people to resist. And honestly, anyone who really craves power and authority probably shouldn’t have it. That’s where you get people like Brutus and Cassius, who feel called to disrupt it through violence or otherwise. And then you get the Mark Antonys and Octaviuses who respond with vengeance, and even more violence follows. That cycle seems inevitable in humanity. But I find reassurance in remembering that this is what humans have always done. We’re not living in unprecedented times in that sense. It’s the unfortunate pattern of being interdependent with each other, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with us. We’re all doing the best we can— so all we ought to do is lead with love and keep trying our best.