Central Park Performance of Julius Caesar Interrupted by Pro-Trump Protesters

Friday night’s Shakespeare in the Park performance of Julius Caesar, which had been criticized before its premiere for depicting the assassination of President Donald Trump, was interrupted by protesters halfway through the play. One woman, later identified as Laura Loomer, climbed onto the stage to shout, “This is political violence against the right,” before being escorted from the premises and charged with trespassing.

The incident was filmed by Jack Posobiec, a right wing blogger best known for spreading the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, who stood up in the crowd while Loomer was being led out and shouted, “You are all Goebbels… You are inciting terrorists,” before he, too, was led out by security.

The play continued where it left off after both protesters were escorted from the theater space.

The Public Theater’s production of the play has drawn criticism for its Trump-like portrayal of the doomed authority figure. Set in the modern-day, this Caesar is blond, wears a blazer with a red tie, and has a wife with an Eastern European accent. Both Delta Air Lines and Bank of America announced last week that they’ve pulled their sponsorship from the Public Theater’s performance, after the production became a talking point in conservative media.

After the incident, Posobiec jokingly announced that he’d be holding a similar production where the victim is, instead, Hillary Clinton.

He is probably referring to Arthur Miller’s McCarthyism allegory The Crucible, which used the historical Salem witch trials as a metaphor for the right-wing-led anti-Communist mania of the 1950s. During the actual trials, twenty people in colonial Massachusetts accused of being sorcerers were hung, not burned at the stake. A New York Times review of the latest Broadway production of The Crucible notes how it “insists that we identify with not only the victims of persecution but also with those who would judge them.“ Posobiec has yet to clarify if he has actually read The Crucible or understands its subject.