Julius Caesar presented by The Brown Paper Box Co. at The Greenhouse Theater Center

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...The Brown Paper Box Co.'s low-budget staging of Shakespeare's drama seeks "to ask questions about how we support female leaders in a male-dominated political system," according to director-adapter Lavina Jadhwani. But despite the casting of women as the assassinated Roman general Julius Caesar and her avenger, Mark Antony, opposite a male actor playing Caesar's assassin, Brutus-and implying a sexual element in Brutus's feelings for Caesar-the production offers little clear or coherent perspective on issues of gender and power."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"... Julius Caesar may be Shakespeare’s most accessible tragedy. It can be watched, understood, and enjoyed with almost no previous knowledge of the play. Even in Paper-Box Company’s production of the work, the gender-bending cast in which both Caesar (Amy Malcom) and Mark Anthony are played by women will not confuse audience members very much if they have an understanding of the dynamic of modern gender-reversed casting, especially prominent in Shakespeare’s plays, on the contemporary theatre scene."

Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended

"...I'm still thinking about Julius Caesar nearly a full day after viewing it. As America descends into voting season, choosing Presidential candidates and fighting for civil rights centuries after such battles should have ended, Shakespeare’s play is more relevant than ever. Do yourself a favor and see Brown Paper Box Co.’s adept, haunting production. It’s important in more ways than one."

NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" meditates on the nature and import of the sign, whether there is truth in the stars, prophecies, apparitions or hallucinations, words written in a will or uttered by a politician, the shapes of vessels that intimate spirit, claims to love and loyalty, gestures of courage or cowardice. "Yet see you but our hands/And this the bleeding business they have done:/Our hearts you see not," says Brutus. Beneath is only the veracity of mortality-and Jadhwani's best choice is to end the play with Marc Antony (Vahishta Vafadari) kneeling over the body of the disemboweled Brutus (Jeff Kurysz) uttering the line, "This was a man."