Naked Shakes’ ‘Immortal Longings’

UCSB’s much-beloved Naked Shakes program, which massages and presents stripped-down versions of works by Shakespeare, celebrates its 15th anniversary with Immortal Longings, a new adaptation by founder Irwin Appel that combines Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra with George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra into a single play.

“We are in the middle of the most important election season in our lifetimes,” Appel explained in a press release about his original choice. “Julius Caesar … poses many questions about power, tyranny, empire, monarchy, and what it means to live in a republic. Once the pandemic hit, and then with the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others, it seemed even more relevant and necessary.”

The new production will be presented on Zoom. A team of more than 25 faculty, alumni, guest artists, and graduate and undergraduate students collaborate on the epic that will be presented in two parts, available either on separate evenings on September 2-3 and 8-9 beginning at 6 pm, or in one afternoon beginning at 12 noon on September 4. Visit www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu/news/event/826 for details and link.