The final performance of the Public Theater’s much-criticized production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was interrupted by a protestor angry about the 400-year-old play’s depiction of the title character as a blonde, groping politician with a long red tie.
“Goebbels would be proud! Goebbels would be proud!” shouted a bespectacled man during Act 1, Scene 1 of the play, in which the tribune Flavius urges commoners to get back to work. Minutes later, directly before the scene depicting Caesar’s assassination, another man ran onstage, shouting “We’re sick of your bullshit!”
This is the second time that protesters have interrupted a performance at the Central Park venue, all of which intended to decry the production’s parallels between the Roman dictator and President Donald Trump. The assassination scene has drawn particular criticism. Delta Air Lines and the Bank of America pulled sponsorship from the Public Theater, which produces New York’s annual “Shakespeare In the Park” summer series.
