Delta Airlines pulls sponsorship from Public Theater because of Trump-inspired Julius Caesar — Page 2

Good for them- this play clearly shows an assassination of the current President, regardless of is you like him or not, he is the president. It's disgusting how hateful and violent this "art" is.

But who is Caesar clearly resembling? Who does the woman resemble? What kind of accent does the woman have? All coincidences??? I think not.

The premise of Free Shakespeare in the Park is a wonderful idea - the idea being that the theater is accessible financially to anyone who makes an effort to get a ticket. However, this becomes problematic because Shakespeare's works, while genius and well-crafted, are not all that accessible to the general public. I even find myself, a college educated student, often getting confused when watching his works being performed. The upset surrounding the production where Oskar Eustis (Director and Head of The Public Theater) attempts to use Caesar as an allegory for President Trump's administration, is not surprising. However, I believe most of this upset stems from confusion. After watching President Trump get graphically stabbed on stage, that image remains in one's mind more than the resulting event of the citizens rising up to respect Caesar/Trump's image and learn their lesson. The Public recently responded stating that their intended message is that "those who attempt to defend democracy by undemocratic means pay a terrible price and destroy the very thing they are fighting to save." What Eustis' goal for the production was versus how clearly it came across seems to be where the trouble lies. Eustis, an incredibly wise and grounded man, may have been too ambitious in creating a production that goes over the general public's heads leaving them confused as to whether its message was rebelling against the administration or rather supporting the unification of people and attempting to make the best of where we are now with what we have. Either way, what is clear, is that when inviting an audience of all different backgrounds to a show that is so politically charged and confusing, the one image that will remain in the audience's heads after the show is our president being killed before us. What Delta and the Bank of America may be questioning is whether people no matter their political stance should hold some value and respect behind the presidential figure in at least acknowledging that he is the figurehead for our country. Is it appropriate to show this assassination, and would doing Julius Caesar without the obvious political parallel have gotten across the same message in perhaps a more tactful way? Whether for the current administration or against, and no matter what this production meant to be saying, the death of our current president is a very dangerous image to display particularly with the confusion surrounding its message.

Oh dear, what next ... MoMA looses sponsorship for those pornographic Picasso paintings? Hmmm

Julius Caesar portrayed as Abe Lincoln, the former of which gets assassinated in a theatrical setting...BUT SO DOES THE LATTER! This is some Inception stuff!

I was not a fan of the production or Eustis' concept and do think showing the assassination of a president- at least in the context of this Julius Caesar- to be misguided.

However, that just means that I, personally, would not stage it that way. I fully support the Public and Eustis' right to make that artistic decision, and only someone truly ignorant would think the play, production, company, or director was actually advocating for assassination.

It's nice that the right has room in their tent for talking heads that spout truly dangerous conspiracy theories and racist rhetoric, but they can't handle Julius Caesar. Snowflakes!

Updated On: 6/13/17 at 10:18 AM

American Express may not have withdrawn financial support, but they did issue a statement distancing themselves from the production:

We would like to clarify that our sponsorship of the Public Theater does not fund the production of Shakespeare in the Park nor do we condone the interpretation of the Julius Caesar play.

Also...LOLOLOL at "the Julius Caesar play"

The cynic in me questions if Bank of America would act the same if Trump weren't trying to roll back banking regulations.... hmmm.

Daddy Warbucks said: "If Obama had just been elected and some conservative theatre in a southern state were doing the Obama* inspired Julius Caesar play, we'd all be throwing a fit and demanding that companies blacklist the entire state, not just the production itself."

But does that actually happen in reality? It'd be kind of fascinating if there was a Breitbart Shakespeare company in one of the red states. But red state theater controversies tend to be about cancellation of productions that members of a local community believe threaten their values.

It's what's going on here on the surface but the real target are corporations which are caught in a two way battle between Trump activists and anti-Trump activists. Both sides want corporations to feel their collective rage.

Intolerance of artistic expression definitely goes both right and leftwards but the power to really cause cultural damage to arts institutions tends to go one way and it emanates from the red states.

Updated On: 6/13/17 at 05:42 PM

Kind of surprised/interested that this has caused such a stir.