"Julius Caesar". Ormiston Bushfield Academy, Peterborough
Phyllida Lloyd's 2012 production of Julius Caesar is one of the defining Shakespeare interpretations of the 21st century. By setting it in a women's prison, and by creating the compelling illusion that the cast was made up of real convicts, it gave a voice to the voiceless, a vital feminist perspective to a traditionally macho story, and – perhaps most revolutionary of all – it smashed to smithereens the so-called suspension of disbelief. Audiences could not be sure whether they were seeing illusion or reality. When prison warders stopped the show halfway through to remove an actor who'd misbehaved, we didn't know what to believe any more. It stopped being just about Brutus, Cassius and co, and became a vehicle for an oppressed, imprisoned minority to express themselves; to experience, for a couple of hours, freedom. Orange is the New Black meets Spartacus . The show was a worldwide sensation, playing in London, on Broadway, on tour. The BBC filmed it. Awards piled up...