Breaking with the
Federal Theatre Project in 1937,
Orson Welles and
John Houseman founded their own repertory company, which they called the Mercury Theatre. The name was inspired by the title of the iconoclastic magazine,
The American Mercury. The original company included such actors as
Joseph Cotten,
George Coulouris,
Geraldine Fitzgerald,
Ruth Ford,
Arlene Francis,
Martin Gabel,
John Hoysradt,
Whitford Kane,
Norman Lloyd,
Vincent Price,
Erskine Sanford,
Stefan Schnabel and
Hiram Sherman. The Mercury Theatre opened November 11, 1937, with
Caesar—Welles's modern-dress adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy
Julius Caesar, streamlined into an
anti-fascist tour de force that Joseph Cotten later described as "so vigorous, so contemporary that it set Broadway on its ear." The set was completely open with no curtain, and the brick stage walls were painted dark red. Scene changes were achieved by lighting alone. On the stage was a series of risers; squares were cut into one riser at intervals and lights were set beneath it, pointing straight up to evoke the "
cathedral of light" at the
Nuremberg Rallies. "He staged it like a political melodrama that happened the night before," said Norman Lloyd, who played the role of
Cinna the Poet. In a scene that became the fulcrum of the show, Cinna the Poet dies at the hands not of a mob but of a secret police force. Lloyd called it "an extraordinary scene [that] gripped the audience in a way that the show stopped for about three minutes. The audience stopped it with applause." Rehearsals began October 21, 1937. At the end of October, press agent Henry Senber oversaw a ceremony unveiling the new electric sign identifying the theatre as the Mercury. Ticket prices ranged from 55 cents, for seats in the top balcony, to $2.20 for front row orchestra seats. The production moved from the Mercury Theatre to the larger
National Theatre on January 24, 1938. (Lucius) and Orson Welles (Brutus) in the tent scene in
Caesar (1937) "
Caesar was unquestionably Welles's highest achievement in the theatre," wrote critic
Richard France. Welles performed with a real dagger, which caught the light dramatically during the assassination scene. Holland collapsed on the stage floor and remained motionless, and in time the cast members realized that he was bleeding profusely. At the end of the scene he was taken by taxi to the hospital. During the month it took Holland to recover, the role of Caesar was played by
John Hoysradt. Holland returned to the
Caesar cast on May 5, 1938.
Cast (
George Coulouris) addresses the crowd in
Caesar (1937) •
Joseph Holland as
Julius Caesar are from the production after it moved from the Mercury Theatre to the larger
National Theatre in January. File:Caesar-Mercury-2.jpg|Brutus (Orson Welles) File:Caesar-Mercury-1.jpg|Standing over the murdered body of Caesar, Brutus (Orson Welles) is confronted by Marc Antony (George Coulouris) and Cassius (Martin Gabel) File:Caesar-Mercury-3.jpg|Portia (
Alice Frost) and Brutus (Orson Welles) ==Reception==