Playbill of events

Theater on Podil expresses gratitude to The Marquit Grieser Fund and Susie Sainsbury for the financial assistance and support of the project. 

A riveting new work about power―and the abuse of power― in ancient Rome that has startling resonance with our age, Conversations in Tusculum reimagines the intense interaction among Brutus, Cassius, and Cicero leading up to the assassination of Julius Caesar, the leader they had once followed into battle but whom they have come to despise. Passionate in their beliefs but torn by their sense of loyalty, they struggle to continue believing in him despite their fear that his actions may pose great dangers to the nation. Conversations in Tusculum had its world premiere at the Public Theater in New York City in March 2008.

“Nelson…is a master of the quiet detail, of the oblique rhythm that transforms emotional diffidence into fascinating character.”–Newsday

“Set in country villas outside of Rome in the months before Caesar’s assassination, CONVERSATIONS IN TUSCULUM imagines the frustrations of fiery senators and warriors reduced to brooding in self-imposed isolation about the endangered civil freedoms of their republic … A portrait of the guilt of being merely intellectual when the world demands something more.” ⁠—⁠Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“Mr Nelson has charted how the chaos of the world enters in the first place: slight by slight, betrayal by betrayal, injustice by injustice, conversation by conversation.” ⁠—⁠Eric Grode, The New York Sun

[CONVERSATIONS IN TUSCULUM] feels a little like Chekhov and means to remind us of the power-hungry men currently in charge in Washington. Nelson’s script, basically faithful to history, is written in a 21st-century vernacular that casts these men as Wall Street or movie moguls on their days off. TUSCULUM is a taste well worth acquiring.” ⁠—⁠Elizabeth Zimmer, Metro