SOURCE: Barbour, David. “Bring Me the Head of David McCallum.” Entertainment Design 34, no. 10 (October 2000): 8-13.

In the following excerpted review, Barbour describes Barry Edelstein's production of Julius Caesar as fast paced and “sure-handed.”

New Yorkers, normally a rather blasé lot, were recently surprised to see a flatbed truck heading uptown, bearing a 350 lb. papier-mâché head bearing an uncanny resemblance to the actor David McCallum. It was no mass hallucination; instead, it was a key part of the scenic design of Julius Caesar, as staged by New York Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park.

Julius Caesar, with its plot full of assassinations, speeches, and political maneuvering culminating in open warfare, is always a favorite during an election year, but Barry Edelstein's notably swift and sure-handed production could not have been further from the staged banalities of the Republican and Democratic convention broadcasts. Edelstein set the...