Hail 'Caesar' — Husband-and-wife actors tackle the Shakespearean classic for PTC

The last time Victoria Adams-Zischke was in Salt Lake City, she was playing Guenevere opposite Kurt Zischke's King Arthur in Pioneer Theatre Company's 2001 production of "Camelot."

The chemistry between Arthur and Guenevere obviously worked.

Kurt and Victoria closed "Camelot" in Salt Lake City and returned to New York City and got engaged.

Now, they're back — again playing a husband and wife, but in a Shakespearean drama that is not remotely as romantic as "Camelot."

For Pioneer Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," Kurt is playing anguished conspirator Marcus Brutus and his wife is playing Portia.

The play's title aside, Brutus is really the central — and most complex — character in the drama. While others in his circle of Roman friends conspire to assassinate Caesar for reasons of greed, envy or to safeguard their social standing, Brutus makes things very clear that he is slaying his good friend simply to prevent him from crowning himself king of Rome.

In the end, when both Brutus and Portia have committed suicide, Mark Antony hails Brutus as "the noblest Roman of them all."

Director Charles Morey is setting "Julius Caesar" in a time period in the not-too-distant future.

Many of Shakespeare's classic works — from the romantic comedy of "Much Ado About Nothing" to the gruesome politics of "Titus Andronicus" — continue to be relevant today.

In his production notes for "Julius Caesar," Morey, the artistic director of PTC since 1984, says Caesar (who lived from 102-44 B.C.) resided in " . . . a world of conspiracies and counter-conspiracies; a world in which fear trumps individual liberties; a world in which a powerful leader is rapidly consolidating and centralizing power; a world in which the state is becoming adept at the manipulation of public opinion in pursuit of political purposes.

"I do not mean to suggest in any way that Shakespeare wrote 'Julius Caesar' to comment upon or 'protest' end-of-the-16th-century political realities. But the central concerns of the play — the intersection of personal morality and public ethics — certainly resonated against the political realities of his day just as they resonate against the political realities of the early 21st century."

A couple of notable exceptions to setting "Julius Caesar" in ancient Rome include Orson Welles' 1938 version, set in Fascist leader Benito Mussolini's Italy, and John Barton's 1968 Royal Shakespeare Company production, set in DeGaulle's France.

Local theatergoers who remember the "bios" from their playbills may wonder about the spelling of Kurt Zischke's last name.