Audience invited to feel the power of words at Stratford theatre

I, CINNA (The Poet) is an interactive play for ages 11 plus. Playwright Tim Crouch has taken a minor character from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and given him voice.

Shakespeare’s poet Cinna is not a lucky man - in his one and only scene he is mistaken for another character of the same name and torn to pieces by the mob, who are angry at Caesar’s death. Tim Crouch’s Cinna (Jude Owusu) leads us up to that dreadful act. He is a poet who would speak “about love and freedom and peace, but the world won’t let me.” His weapons are words, and it is words that are the true subject of this piece; how “there is nothing that cannot be done or undone with words.” Through words his character lives and dies, as do real people according to what they are called.

As the play develops, the audience are asked to write with Cinna, to feel the power of words for themselves and finally to compose their own poems on his death.

One of the most telling moments is when Cinna asks the audience: what would you die for; what would you kill for? Behind the stage, recent video footage is shown of protesting crowds whose behaviour is either an expression of democracy or mob rule, depending on your point of view.

I, Cinna (The Poet) brilliantly links Shakespeare’s play with themes that are current, drawing the audience in by engaging them directly with the action.

Poems written by the audience will be presented on line after July 2.

Nick Le Mesurier