New York's Public Theater is facing heat over its "Shakespeare in the Park" series. The organization’s production of “Julius Caesar” ends with the Roman politician being assassinated. Caesar looks like Trump.
On Sunday, Delta Airlines and Bank of America both pulled their support from the company. “We do not condone this interpretation of Julius Caesar at this summer’s Free Shakespeare in the Park,” tweeted Delta. “We have notified them of our decision to end our sponsorship as the official airline of The Public Theater.”
It’s not the first time the left has used fiction to entertain the idea of assassinating a Republican president.
In 2004 That Knopf published Nicholson Baker’s novel “Checkpoint.” The book imagines a conversation in a Washington, D.C. hotel between Jay and Ben, two friends. Jay, a former teacher, wants to assassinate President George W. Bush. Ben tries to convince him otherwise. That is to say, Ben sort of tries to convince Jay not to shoot President Bush. As Jay boils with rage at his impotence at stopping the war in Iraq, calling the president a “Penisf*cker,” Ben slips and asks Jay how “we” plan on carrying out the deed. It’s clear that he sympathizes.
According to a review in the Guardian at the time, Checkpoint “tries to be funny, but isn’t.”
The New York Public Theater’s “Julius Caesar” tries to be sick, and succeeds.
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