[The video above contains swears and is not safe for work. Thug Notes gives us an easy-to-understand review of what the play "Julius Caesar" is about.]
I spent this Saturday morning watching YouTubes of Julius Caesar adaptations, mostly from high school boys posting the video for an assignment. Kids set the play in the Godfather world of mobsters, in an imaginary communist country, and in their own school.
Some conservatives are really bent out of shape about the setting in modern-day Washington DC. Because "killing" Donald Trump is offensive. And some protestors interrupted the performance last night. And you'll note I give not one link to any alt-right racist "provacateur" a-hole trying once again to make Twitter fame out of a "controversy" by filming the protest and claiming victory over liberalism. The Theater tweeted the true story:
To paraphrase Titus Andronicus: "Farewell, pizza gate nobody. Dustbin of history, mofo! Be off!"
This "Julius Caesar" director, Oskar Eustis,
"addressed that criticism in remarks to the crowd before the show began, saying the role of theatre was to hold a mirror up to nature and occasionally reveal uncomfortable truths.
“Anyone who watches this play tonight… would know that neither Shakespeare nor the Public Theater could possibly advocate violence as a solution to political problems, and certainly not assassination,” he said.
“This play, on the contrary, warns about what happens when you try to preserve democracy by non-democratic means, and again, spoiler alert: it doesn’t end up too good.” "
An earlier staging of 'Julius Caesar' showed the "killing" Barack Obama five years ago. Why didn't liberals raise arms against the production? Maybe because, you know, we're smart. We get that the point of drama is to make it understandable and immediate. And if a staging of Shakespeare seems off to us, we stay home.
I could do a long paragraph here about what the play is about, but Thug Notes does such an excellent job. I do recommend watching that video to the end.
The point has been underlined again that we are two Americas: One America is educated and gets terms like "allegory" and "satire," and one watches Fox and reads Drudge as "news."
And right now the so-called president is firmly in the second camp.
And he and his party have stolen a Supreme Court seat, hidden their nefarious bill to destroy our healthcare system, and are well on their way to looting the Treasury to benefit the rich.
We liberals know that stabbing someone in the Roman theater won't end the tyranny of the Republican party. Give me a break.
That said, the 2018 midterms certainly sound full-on "Ides of March" to me. The conservative snowflakes freaking out about a Shakespeare play should beware.
