The first preview of the norm-disrupting production of “Julius Caesar” kicked off a promising start to this year’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival, now in its 90th season.

During the preshow announcement, local playgoers and seasonal staff conveyed their pride for Ashland’s yearly homage to William Shakespeare’s masterworks with a level of cheering and applause one would expect to hear at a college football game.

Directed by Rosa Joshi and produced in association with upstart crow collective, the flagship presentation features an all-female and nonbinary cast, with Kate Wisniewski in the title role.

The tragedy, based on the last days of Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE), begins as townspeople are celebrating the heroine’s return after a military victory. It’s worth noting that the first-scene character portrayals were so widely diverse, the casting course wasn’t immediately apparent to this reviewer.

Amid a growing concern that the Roman Republic could lose governing control to an incoming monarchy, two politicians, Cassius (Caro Zeller) and Brutus (Kate Hurster), begin to theorize, then fear, that Caesar would likely become a ruthless despot if given the opportunity. In a preemptive strike, they concoct an assassination plot and surreptitiously enlist other high-ranking statesmen to join their cause. As events unfold, the consequences of their actions threaten the stability of an already divided Rome.

When a procession of Caesar’s contingent crosses the stage from upstage right, it was the first of many moments in the show that mirrored watching the nightly news.

Enrobed in Sara Ryung Clement’s glorious costume design, Caesar’s personality is also on display as an inner battle rages between her ambition (Real-life Caesar was, reportedly, in constant competition with the legacy of Alexander the Great) and her goodwill. This intimate collaboration among the actress, director, and playwright was a joy to behold.

What drives this compelling thriller is the art of persuasion, where characters vie for eggshell guarantees of loyalty in an effort to fortify partisan strength. Who the influencer is at any given moment vacillates between the most convincing of orators.

A warning of Caesar’s impending fate comes from an eerie soothsayer (Ava Mingo), who apprises her to “Beware the Ides of March.” This omen is dismissed, albeit hesitantly.

When the idealistic Brutus, forced to choose between her loyalty to Caesar and the country she feels duty-bound to preserve, reluctantly submits to her co-conspirator’s urging, it becomes clear that her indecisiveness is what fuels the intensity of the first act, just as her self-flagellation bolsters the second.

Hurster isn’t the first actress to shank Caesar onstage.

In 2019, Harriet Walter (Sense and Sensibility, Ted Lasso) did so in Donmar Warehouse’s all-female production, which was set in a women’s prison. Four years later, Thalissa Teixeira stepped into the role for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Until recently, however, the part has been vested in top leading men, like John Gielgud, Ben Kingsley, Denzel Washington, among others.

With subtlety and monumental skill, Hurster delivers.

Jessika D. Williams plays the steadfast Mark Antony, whose call for retribution is deftly disguised as a heartfelt eulogy. With a prowess not seen since Kellyanne Conway, her words effectively turn the mob against the murderers, unaware that they’ve just been played by a political virtuoso. Hearing Williams’ rich, resonant voice deliver the play’s most famous speech is worth the price of admission.

Indeed, each monologue did take on a new meaning when spoken by a female or nonbinary actor.

Amelio García (Caska) has an obvious knack for demystifying Shakespeare’s text. Watching this ebullient performer was sheer fun.

Caesar might have lived longer if Cassius wasn’t such a strong party whip. The memory of Zeller’s powerful performance stayed with me long after I left the theatre.

Movement director Alice Gosti’s physical storytelling and U. Jonathan Toppo’s fight choreography brought graceful, well-executed scenes of violence and chaos to Luciana Stecconi’s majestic set design.

Despite the disturbing themes, there were more than a few humorous moments.

The most memorable was when the sweet, gentle, but utterly powerless Calpurnia (Caroline Shaffer), Caesar’s wife, pleads with her partner not to go to the Senate after waking from an ominous dream. The quick-thinking Decius (Erica Sullivan) spontaneously reinterprets the dream as one of good fortune, strategically appealing to Caesar’s vanity and long-term aspirations, ultimately saving the plan from being thwarted. The scene is dark, but this particular exchange was genuinely funny.

At times, Joshi brought the ensemble into the aisles, where the townspeople shouted out their varying opinions. The effect was reminiscent of a midnight scroll on social media, with the volume up. Later, when the actors began to quake, it seemed to suggest an overstimulation, an uncontrolled, ragdoll response to the sweeping decrees handed down by Rome’s highest office.

The superb cast included Nell Geisslinger, Uma Paranjpe, Antoinette Robinson, Betsy Schwartz, Lisa Tejero, and Sheila Tousey.

Throughout the evening, I found myself struck by Shakespeare’s compassion for humanity. Some may even feel that he’s a soothsayer for our times.

When this production unveiled Caesar’s successor, it seemed to shed light on an aspect of human nature itself.

As Paul Adolphsen, OSF’s production dramaturg, wrote in the program notes: “The conspirators may kill Caesar the man, but they do not kill Caesar the idea.”

This play is a masterful work that deserves to be seen, and perhaps even learned from, again and again.