"23 Knives"

[Nephele]

Saturday afternoon I went to see a performance of Christopher Boal's 23 Knives at The Clurman Theatre (in Theatre Row on 42nd Street). It was the final day for the play's run in New York and, while I chatted a bit after the play with artistic director Eric Parness, I neglected to ask whether the play might be going on to other cities. I was mostly interested in seeing a copy of the script, which hasn't yet been published.

 

Below is a picture of the stage (which I took from my third row seat before the performance began). Caesar's covered corpse lay on the stage in a pool of blood, awaiting the players. A couple of small splatters of blood appear on the statue in the background, but none on the walls. Plot points, all, in the murder "mystery" to be solved.

 

 

I found myself agreeing with the New York Times theater reviewer who wrote that the play begins slowly. However, once having reached its stride, I found the play's progress both interesting and enjoyable.

 

The character of the quack physician, Antistius, was convincing (and somewhat deliciously macabre), as he studiously worked at inserting small flags, dagger, and sword into the various wounds on the bloodied corpse of Caesar, to arrive at his conclusions regarding Caesar's assassin(s).

 

While the character of Antistius' wise-cracking slave/sidekick/friend, Janus, had a believable and touching pathos about him, his occasional campiness reminded me a bit too much of Alan Sues (he even looked a bit like Alan Sues of his Laugh-In days, and I don't know whether that was intentional).

 

Nevertheless, I think Janus had some of the best lines in the play, in which many thought-provoking lines dealt with the reality of what we call "truth." At one point, Janus says: "Slaves understand a truth about life that no one does." Antistius asks: "And what's that?" Janus responds: "You're never safe." Janus' prescience in that spoken line is sadly made apparent towards the end of the play.

 

The humor in the play was mostly witty, but there were at least a couple of lines that made me cringe: "What the fatui?!" and "I suppose I will be famous... get my quarter-turn of the dial." Those lines would have been amusing in an episode of Up Pompeii, but they tended to sound a bit silly and unnecessarily anachronistic here.

 

In answer to MPC's question: "Do they really think that 23 knife wounds implies 23 knives??"...

 

Well, apparently "23 knife wounds" implied: Perhaps as many as 22 knives -- and definitely one sword. And it appeared (from Antistius' conclusions) that it was this single sword wound -- from a soldier's sword -- which dealt the fatal blow to Caesar.

 

A conclusion to which Marcus Antonius (perhaps a bit too vehemently to escape suspicion) responded: "In Caesar's Rome, my Rome, a soldier's sword would never do this!"

 

Spoiler alert!

 

The ending of the play takes place few years after the events of Caesar's assassination, as we are given an additional murder mystery speculation -- this one involving the historic suicide of Antony's love, Cleopatra.

 

"A love for a love," Antistius dryly explains, after describing a ball of beeswax that he had provided the Queen -- which contained asp's poison.

 

Revenge for the death of Janus? That will have to be resolved in another play.

 

 

-- Nephele

[Maty]

A great review Nephele! Let's hope that the play does well, and introduces more people to the ancient world.

 

As an aside, Pompey was sometimes accused by his enemies of being effeminate. Since Caesar died at the feet of Pompey's statue, I can only assume from the scene depicted that Pompey's detractors were correct.

[M. Porcius Cato]

Many thanks for the review Nephele!

 

I wonder, who commissioned the autopsy? Did they depict the wax effigy of Caesar, marked by the dagger wounds? Any other famous Romans make an appearance?

[Nephele]

Thanks, Maty and MPC!

 

Maty: Too funny! I don't know whether the play's artistic director is aware of Plutarch's (?) account of Caesar dying at the feet of Pompey's statue -- and whether that feminine statue used on stage was deliberate! I hadn't noticed that, myself -- but leave it to you, Maty, to notice! I'll have to drop the director a line and ask him.

 

MPC: In the play, it was Marcus Antonius who commissioned the autopsy. No wax effigy of Caesar was depicted -- the dummy Caesar used in the staging was supposed to represent Caesar's actual corpse, as it was quite bloody. And no other famous Romans made an appearance in the play. I've mailed you a playbill.

 

-- Nephele

[DecimusCaesar]

Great review Nephele! This sounds like an interesting take on Caesar's assassination and the autopsy that followed. Wasn't the autopsy supposed to be the most accurate done in the ancient world? Or was it the first of its type? I can remember reading about it in a book, but I just can't seem to remember what it said. Any primary sources on this story?

[Nephele]

Great review Nephele! This sounds like an interesting take on Caesar's assassination and the autopsy that followed. Wasn't the autopsy supposed to be the most accurate done in the ancient world? Or was it the first of its type? I can remember reading about it in a book, but I just can't seem to remember what it said. Any primary sources on this story?

 

Thanks, DC! I don't know of any detailed account of the autopsy from any primary sources, but if someone can find something, I'd love to read it!

 

All I'm aware of is the single line that Antistius got in Suetonius' Life of Julius Caesar (translated by Rolfe): "And of so many wounds none turned out to be mortal, in the opinion of the physician Antistius, except the second one in the breast." (82.3)

 

The play is based around that reference -- with the second wound (the fatal sword wound) being the most significant in the murder "mystery."

 

-- Nephele