There’s an incantatory, mesmerizing quality to We Players’ “Roman Women,” which, with Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” as a gossamer framework, comprises original songs (score by Charlie Gurke); circular, choreographed movement; grave prophecies and existential musings; and excerpts from the tragedy itself.

The production features an excellent chorus of five women (Micael Bogar, Julie Douglas, Lauren Hayes, Baily Hopkins and Emily Stone) plus the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva (Britt Lauer), who presides majestically over the activities. [...]

[Director Ava] Roy intends for “Roman Women” to represent a cycle, a ritual that, as she writes in the program, weaves through time as the women search for, and re-create among themselves, some version of the emperor Caesar, the all-powerful male figure.

Accordingly, don’t expect a clear narrative arc, or to actually see the emperor assassinated in the space, which at times represents the Roman forum.

The women’s singing voices are lovely within the rotunda’s acoustics, their monologues from “Julius Caesar” and other text impassioned and clear, and the steady repetitions of movement and choral chants (some in Latin) are hypnotic.
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Site-specific work this sensorial, this well done, is its own raison d’être.

With its latest, the site-specific company [We Players] heads to the Palace of Fine Arts, but emphatically not to the venue’s theater. They’re staging “Roman Women” at the outdoor rotunda.

The all-female ensemble created the show, which uses movement, dance and live music to flesh out the female characters of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” (Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle)