The trouble with mobs

If you are lucky enough to get a ticket for Julius Caesar at London’s Bridge theatre, prepare to join the mob. Actors turn into stewards and herd most of the audience around the stage as if they are crowds at a political rally. A live band blasts out rock songs and urges us to chant Caesar’s name, as the production drives home the parallels between the Roman dictator and today’s populist leaders.

The spirit of Donald Trump is with us: Mark Antony and Caesar follow the dress code for billionaires posing as friends of the American people when they appear in tracksuits and baseball caps. There was a hint of Jeremy Corbyn too, although the band missed a trick when they played Seven Nation Army and forgot to demand the audience sing ‘Oh Julius Caesar’.

It’s an invigorating production. Every modern trick the director pulls – the rock music, the women playing male roles, the audience doubling as mobs and armies – is enlightening rather than irritating.