Julius Caesar

It seems Welles was determined to produce at least one Shakespeare play as part of the season, and his choice is an intriguing one. Not for Welles the heroics of the history plays, the spectacle of the more grandiose tragedies or the gleefulness of the comedies. Rather the bleak aftermath of a political assassination is portrayed as a kind of moral misadventure. In the end Welles decides to go for moral rather than dramatic complexity, his Brutus is as much a victim of his own sense of virtue than his murderous act. George Coulouris makes a fearsomely righteous opponent.

Performed, Welles assures us, "without benefit of toga," this production was nonetheless a sort of revival of the Mercury Theatre's acclaimed Broadway production of Julius Caesar, setting the production in a fascist state highly reminiscent of Germany or Italy. Reducing Caesar to under an hour is no easy task, and the narrated summaries of events are perhaps a little odd, but Welles pulls an extremely taut political thriller from what remains. This recording is taken from a rehearsal, the original being thought lost. It is unlikely that, twenty minutes in, Welles cried 'Silence in the studio!' during the actual broadcast.

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone."