Trumpsters issue death threats to wrong theaters over “Julius Caesar”
Protesters angry over fictional violence in Shakespeare's play respond with violent threats to innocent people
Skip to CommentsTopics: Donald Trump, Drama, Entertainment, Jack Posobiec, Julius Caesar, oskar eustis, partner video, Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Company, Shakespeare in the Park, Politics News, Entertainment News, News
Outrage over the Public Theater’s recent production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” in New York City’s Central Park — one which features President Donald Trump as the titular and eventually assassinated dictator — continues.
On top of protestors who have interrupted the show multiple times, the torrent of death threats and critiques delivered through voicemail, social media or email has become so broad and impassioned that, often, institutions and businesses that have nothing to do with the Public Theater find themselves under fire.
For example, Shakespeare & Company, a regional theater in in Lenox, Massachusetts, has received numerous death threats and hate-fueled messages despite having no part in Oskar Eustis’ offending production of “Julius Caesar”.
“F— you,” one message said, according to the Washington Post. “[H]ope you all who did this play about Trump are the first do die when ISIS COMES TO YOU f—– sumbags [sic].” Another message told the company that they are, “vial [sic] despicable excuses for human beings. I wish you all the worst possible life you could have and hope you all get sick and die.” Currently, Shakespeare and Company is staging “4000 Miles,” the Obie Award-winning play by Amy Herzog. No one resembling the President dies in it.
Shakespeare in Dallas is yet another theater wrongfully associated with the production, and received threats “of rape, death, and wishes that the theater’s staff is ‘sent to ISIS to be killed with real knives,'” according to the Post. That Dallas theater’s own Shakespeare in the Park is currently offering the Bard’s comedy, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” though their late-season staging of “Titus Andronicus” could be more relevant to recent political events.