Many of the people angry about the NYC Shakespeare in the Park's production of "Julius Caesar" are sending hate mail to the wrong theaters - they appear to be targeting any theater company they can find with the name "Shakespeare" attached to it, and sending death threats. These are really stupid people who have either never read or never seen Shakespeare's play but are reacting based on what they've been told by others who have also never read or seen Shakespeare's play, and are lashing out at anything with the name "Shakespeare" attached. Let the book burnings begin...
For starters, the article in Breitbart that started the protests was written by a reporter who never saw the play - he just interviewed someone who did. I realize that Breitbart doesn't have theater critics, but why mail in a story when you can see for yourself what the story is? This is what Breitbart considers "journalism"? Admission is free, so he didn't even have that as an excuse...
Second, the play is NOT just about the assassination of Julius Caesar - that occurs about halfway through, in the first scene of the Third Act. It's not like the good guys slay the bad guy and the play is over so everyone goes home. There are several scenes and another full Act that follow.
The play is about the futility of political violence, and the scenes that follow the assassination show the problems the conspirators faced in trying to govern. Spoiler alert: almost everyone dies in the end.
The play is over 400 years old - it is not a left-wing indictment of our current political system, and it has been staged many times with dialog unchanged and different political leaders cast as Caesar. I read it in high school and then again in college; it was considered a great piece of literature, but it was never a political statement. There was at least one production where the character was made to look like JFK, another where he was Mussolini. Using a known political figure helps to make the play more relevant - except for those who are too low-information to understand the nuance.
What is disturbing about the people who don't understand what the play is about is that they are up in arms about the idea that it is meant to show the assassination of Donald Trump and is somehow the work of leftists - but 4 years ago, when the character looked like Obama, no one seemed to care. Exact same play, produced by the same company, using the same scenes and dialogue. Where was the outrage then? |
