I, Cinna (The Poet) – (RSC)

‘Actually, I wrote a poem…’ is how Cinna the poet (Jude Mawusu) opens Tim Crouch’s new monologue, an exploration of a character in Julius Caesar whose only role is to be in the wrong place and wrong time and to be mistaken for Cinna, the other Cinna, Cinna the conspirator. And to die for it.

Describing himself as a character in brackets – Brackets contain material that can be removed without destroying the meaning of the sentence. That’s me. I’m a poet.

And, as it turns out, so are all of us in the audience. Poets, as well as finding ourselves in brackets with Cinna. This play reminds us just how many there are who find themselves in brackets, whose lives mean so little to those around them that removing them doesn’t change the course of history.

This is the most ‘educational’ of the Tim Crouch monologues – on arrival we were presented with a programme much of which was blank and a pencil. At intervals we were instructed to write certain words, they were even spelled for us, Jude Owusu managing to make it sound as though he was working the spelling out for himself, rather than us, most of the time.

It is not an entirely comfortable experience to be instructed to write down what I would die for, what I would kill for – “go on write it, start the sentence ‘I would die for…’ and ‘I would kill for…’”. Somehow the death and mayhem of Julius Caesar’s world came a little closer…

Mawusu’s performance is thoroughly engaging and natural, drawing the audience in to his republic, a place where we are all equal. Most of the audience were young, in school groups, and I was only aware of the minimum of fidgeting. For me the proof of the power of the character he created lay in the ending – hard to describe without spoiling it, but suffice to say there is a moment that, in lesser hands might have resulted in the giggles and lost the impact, but it didn’t… there was just complete silence.

The whole is supported by a simple rendition of a room in a down at heel area and the use of newsreel film to bring the unrest without to within.

Shakespeare and Crouch are woven seamlessly together to create both an introduction to Julius Caesar and a thought provoking piece about the ease with which an ordinary person, a passerby can get caught up in things beyond his control.

Oh, and actually, I wrote a poem too…

– Kate Saffin