“But the ‘rightness’ of that action suddenly comes under question by a new power figure and because we’ve set the play in modern times, we thought we’d play with the idea of filming and replaying the assassination during the famous ‘Friends, Romans and countrymen’ speech.” O’Grady said he was not intending to make any particular political statement with the play. “The joy of Shakespeare for me is that his themes are timeless and are also immediately recognisable as human, not political traits. LYDIA HARRIS/Supplied Director Chris O’Grady was fascinated with the idea of the mob.