Caesar — Welles, 1938 and more (on the radio)

A couple of days back we discussed Orson Welles’ 1937 Broadway production of Julius Caesar. We had a couple of photos but there’s no film (like there is for the “Voodoo” Macbeth a year before).

However, there are a number of radio recordings Welles did of Caesar with his Mercury Radio Theatre.

Here’s a recording from March of 1938 (bare bones cut; 40:40).

 

Another from July of the same year (a more complete edit of the play, with narration; 1:29:43).

 

Here’s some rehearsal tape from September of the same year (with interesting introduction, tying in current world events to the play; 1:06:44).

 

And here’s a recording from the Ides of March 1944 (the Act Four quarrel scene between Brutus (Welles) and Cassius (Charles Laughton); 7:13).

All of the above are from the Internet Archive’s Orson Welles / Shakespeare Collection (archive.org).

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