Julius Caesar will die a few more times, as the Bard in the Valley thespians bring the Shakespearean play to the Spirit Square Stage in Downtown Langley’s Douglas Park a few more times.
The free play still runs tonight (Thursday, July 31) through Saturday, Aug. 2 at 7 p.m., with a final matinee on Sunday, Aug. 3 at 2 p.m.
Since Bard’s first production in 2010, they’ve had 10,000 people come to see their shows, said Bard boaster Diane Gendron.
“We’re now seeing familiar faces in the audiences as people are making Bard in the Valley’s shows a summer tradition,†she told the Langley Advance.
Because the shows at Douglas Park are free, she believes people can and do bring whole families to see the Shakespearean productions over and over again.
“One great grandmother of 96 recited the ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ speech for me while she was waiting for the show to start. And the three 10-year-old boys I was sitting beside were enthralled by all the action on the stage,†Gendron recounted.
“I find it quite remarkable that Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar in the late 1500s – more than 400 years ago – about a real historical event that took place 2,000 years ago, and our audiences, like so many other audiences over the hundreds of years, are still very much engaged by Shakespeare’s stories and characters.â€
She chuckled at this reality and noted that from Julius Caesar, audiences recognize some of the most famous lines in the English language: “Et, tu, Brute?†“It was Greek to me†“Beware the Ides of March,†and “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.â€