''Imperium: The Cicero Plays'' is a stage adaptation of the Cicero trilogy of novels by Robert Harris (''

Imperium In ancient Rome, ''imperium'' was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from '' auctoritas'' and '' potestas'', different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic a ...

'', ''

Lustrum A lūstrum (, plural lūstra) was a term for a five-year period in Ancient Rome. It is distinct from the homograph ''lustrum'' ( ): a haunt of wild beasts (and figuratively, a den of vice), plural ''lustra'' ( ).Oxford Latin Desk Dictionary (2 ...

'' and ''

Dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...

''). It was premiered by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

at the Swan Theatre in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

from 16 November 2017 to 10 February 2018, directed by

Gregory Doran Sir Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. ''The Sunday Times'' called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'. Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company ...

and with

Richard McCabe Richard McCabe (born William McCabe; 18 August 1960) is a Scottish actor who has specialised in classical theatre. He is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Career McCabe is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

. It played at the

Gielgud Theatre The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, at the corner of Rupert Street, in the City of Westminster, London. The house currently has 994 seats on three levels. The theatre was designed by W. G. R. Sprague and ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from 14 June to 8 September 2018.

Plot summary

The cycle consists of six plays, each roughly one hour long, performed in two groups of three, all narrated by Cicero's slave and later freedman Tiro.

Part I - Conspirator

The first group consists of the plays ''Cicero'', ''Catiline'' and ''Clodius''. It includes a brief flashback to Cicero's prosecution of Verres in 70 BC but mainly runs from Cicero's election campaign for consul in 64 BC until his exile in 58 BC, adapting material from the end of ''Imperium'', the whole of ''Lustrum'' and the start of ''Dictator''.

Part II - Dictator

The second group adapts the remainder of ''Dictator'' into three plays entitled ''Caesar'', ''Mark Anthony'' and ''Octavian''. The first opens as Cicero returns to Italy in the wake of Caesar's victory at Pharsalus in 48 BC, followed by a summing-up of the recent

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and Caesar's assumption of dictatorial powers. The rest of the three plays then follows Cicero's reaction to the

Ides of March The Ides of March (; , Medieval Latin: ) is the day on the Roman calendar marked as the , roughly the midpoint of a month, of Martius, corresponding to 15 March on the Gregorian calendar. It was marked by several major religious observances. ...

and his failed attempts to save the Roman Republic by playing Mark Anthony and Octavian off against each other, culminating in Cicero's execution in 43 BC. The final play ends with an epilogue by Tiro, covering the later fates of Brutus, Cassius, Octavian and Mark Anthony and imagining Cicero's afterlife in words from his own ''

Dream of Scipio The ''Dream of Scipio'' (Latin: ''Somnium Scipionis''), written by Cicero, is the sixth book of ''De re publica'', and describes a (postulated fictional or real) dream vision of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, set two years before he overs ...

''.

Cast (premier production)

*Nicholas Boulton - Celer, Cicero's patrician ally (Part I) / Cassius, conspirator against Caesar (Part II) *

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...

Verres Gaius Verres ( 114 – 43 BC) was a Roman magistrate, notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. His extortion of local farmers and plundering of temples led to his prosecution by Cicero, whose accusations were so devastating that his defence advo ...

(Part I) /

Sura A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' ( al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while the ...

, Catiline's ally (Part I) /

Lepidus Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (; 89 BC – late 13 or early 12 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who formed the Second Triumvirate alongside Octavian and Mark Antony during the final years of the Roman Republic. Lepidus had previously been ...

, leader of Caesar's veterans (Part II) * Daniel Burke - Sositheus, Cicero's slave (Part I) / Marcus, Cicero's son (Part II) * Jade Croot - Tullia, Cicero's daughter * Peter de Jersey -

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

* Joe Dixon -

Catiline Lucius Sergius Catilina ( – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline (), was a Roman politician and soldier best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to seize control of the Roman state in 63 BC. ...

(Part I) /

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

(Part II) * John Dougall - Rabirius, aged senator (Part I) / Metellus Pius, Chief Pontiff (Part I) /

Lucullus Lucius Licinius Lucullus (; 118–57/56 BC) was a Ancient Romans, Roman List of Roman generals, general and Politician, statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and ...

, patrician (Part I) /

Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC) was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was reta ...

, one of Caesar's murderers (Part II) * Michael Grady-Hall - Cato (Part I) / Hirtius, consul in 43 BC (Part II) * Paul Kemp -

Quintus Quintus is a male given name derived from ''Quintus (praenomen), Quintus'', a common Latin language, Latin forename (''praenomen'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Quintus derives from Latin word ''quintus'', meaning "fifth". Quintus is ...

, Cicero's younger brother *

Joseph Kloska Joseph Anthony Kloska (born 1983) is an English actor. He began his career in radio, moving on to work in television, theatre, and film. Life Named after a Polish grandfather, Teofil Joseph Kloska, who had settled in England, Kloska was brought ...

- Tiro, Cicero's slave and secretary * Patrick Knowles - Cethegus, one of Catiline's allies (Part I) / Dolabella, Tullia's unfaithful husband (Parts I and II) *

- Cicero * Hywel Morgan - Hybrida, Cicero's fellow consul for 63 BC (Part I) / Popillius, Cicero's murderer (Part II) * Lily Nichol - Camilla (Part I) / Calpurnia, Caesar's wife (Part II) *

David Nicolle David C. Nicolle (born 4 April 1944) is a British historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages, with a particular interest in the Middle East. Life David Nicolle worked for BBC Arabic before getting his MA at SOAS, Univers ...

Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115–53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome". Wallechinsky, David & Walla ...

(Part I) / Pansa, consul in 43 BC (Part II) * Pierro Niel-Mee - Clodius, Cicero's pupil and later enemy (Part I) /

Agrippa Agrippa may refer to: People Antiquity * Agrippa (mythology), semi-mythological king of Alba Longa * Agrippa (astronomer), Greek astronomer from the late 1st century * Agrippa the Skeptic, Skeptic philosopher at the end of the 1st century * Ag ...

, Octavian's second-in-command (Part II) * Siobhan Redmond -

Terentia Terentia (; 98 BC – AD 6) was the wife of the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. She was instrumental in Cicero's political life both as a benefactor and as a fervent activist for his cause. Family background Terentia was born into a wealthy pleb ...

, Cicero's wife (Parts I and II) / Servilia, Brutus's mother (Part II) * Patrick Romer - Isauricus (Part I) / Piso, Caesar's father-in-law (Part II) *

Jay Saighal Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

- Numitorius, witness against Verres (Part I) / Caeparius, one of Catiline's allies (Part I) / Decimus, conspirator against Caesar (Part II) * Christopher Saul -

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

(Part I) / Murena, consul in 62 BC (Part I) / Vatia, consul in 48 BC and ally of Octavian (Part II) * Eloise Secker - Clodia, Clodius' sister (Part I) /

Fulvia Fulvia (; d. 40 BC) was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the late Roman Republic. Fulvia's birth into an important political dynasty facilitated her relationships and, later on, marriages to Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribo ...

, Mark Antony's wife (Part II) *

Simon Thorp ''Viz'' is a British adult comic magazine founded in 1979 by Chris Donald. It parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy'', but with extensive profanity, toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour ...

Catulus Gaius Lutatius Catulus ( 242–241 BC) was a ancient Rome, Roman statesman and Commander, naval commander in the First Punic War. He was born a member of the plebeian gens Lutatius. His Roman naming conventions, cognomen "Catulus" means "puppy" ...

(Part I) / Calenus, ally of Mark Antony (Part II)

Cast (Gielgud production)

* Nicholas Armfield - Clodius (Part I) / Agrippa (Part II) *Nicholas Boulton - Celer (Part I) / Cassius (Part II) * Tom Brownlee - Lictor (Part I) / Gladiator 1 (Part II) *Guy Burgess - Verres (Part I) / Sura (Part I) / Lepidus (Part II) *Daniel Burke - Sositheus / Marcus (Part II) *Jade Croot - Tullia *Peter de Jersey - Julius Caesar *Joe Dixon - Catiline (Part I) / Mark Antony (Part II) *John Dougall - Rabirius (Part I) / Metellus Pius (Part I) / Lucullus (Part I) / Brutus (Part II) *Michael Grady-Hall - Cato (Part I) / Hirtius (Part II) *Oliver Johnstone - Rufus / Octavian (Part II) *Paul Kemp - Quintus *Joseph Kloska - Tiro *Patrick Knowles - Cethegus (Part I) / Dolabella (Parts I and II) * Andrew Langton - Numitorius (Part I) / Caeparius (Part I) / Decimus (Part II) *Richard McCabe - Cicero *Hywel Morgan - Hybrida (Part I) / Popillius (Part II) *David Nicolle - Crassus (Part I) / Pansa (Part II) *Siobhan Redmond - Terentia (Parts I and II) / Servilia (Part II) *Patrick Romer - Isauricus (Part I) / Piso (Part II) *Christopher Saul - Pompey (Part I) / Murena (Part I) / Vatia (Part II) *Eloise Secker - Clodia (Part I) / Fulvia (Part II) *Simon Thorp - Catulus (Part I) / Calenus (Part II) * Scott Westwood - Young Officer (Part I) / Gladiator 2 (Part II) * Alisha Williams - Camilla (Part I) / Young Mark Antony (Part I) / Calpurnia (Part II)

References