There has been much ado about a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in New York. The play—written more than 400 years ago—has been set in contemporary times, and much has been made of the fact that the actor playing Julius Caesar, who is assassinated in the play (as the real Caesar was in the year 44 BC), resembles U.S. President Donald Trump.
Now, setting Shakespeare’s plays in whatever happens to be the present day is nothing new. Indeed, when Shakespeare’s plays were originally produced the actors wore contemporary Elizabethan clothing, no matter where or when the play was set.
Part of Shakespeare’s genius is his universality; his ability to create works that resound across the centuries, as we see in this New York staging. However, factions toward the right of American politics have condemned the production, claiming that it advocates the assassination of the current president, and even going so far as to claim it incited a man to open fire on Republican politicians as they were preparing for a baseball game. American theatre companies bearing Shakespeare’s name have received death threats.
Various sponsors, including Delta Airlines, have pulled their funding. Interestingly, Delta Airlines was a funder of a 2012 production of Julius Caesar produced by the much-respected Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, in partnership with The Acting Company. In that staging of the play, Caesar was played by an African-American actor, prompting one reviewer to note that “Because Caesar is cast as a tall, lanky black man, the Obama inference is a bit too obvious.”
Delta Airlines did not rescind its funding of that production; nor were there any protests about it (and the right-wing American Conservative thought the production was excellent). Other U.S. productions of Julius Caesar have variously portrayed Caesar as resembling presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
Those who are frothing about the current staging should perhaps read the play, where Caesar—who has just won an important battle—returns to Rome as a hero. He is loved and admired by the people; so much so that his fellow politicians fear that Caesar will take the opportunity to make himself a tyrant and seize complete power. This would turn Rome from a republic to an empire ruled by an autocrat (Caesar himself); so they decide to assassinate him in order to preserve democracy.
They convince Caesar’s good friend Brutus to join their plot (hence Caesar’s famous line “Et tu, Brute?” (“And you, Brutus?”) when he spots his friend among the assassins). However, far from preserving democracy, Caesar’s death plunges Rome into a series of civil wars, leading to the creation of the Roman Empire, which was ruled by emperors who had absolute power.
Thus we see that one theme of the play is “Be careful what you wish for,” while another is that pursuing democracy by undemocratic means seldom works out well. Both themes still resonate today, making Julius Caesar a play that is truly timeless. Shakespeare himself seems to have realized that his play would remain vital through the centuries; in it, a character asks “How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!”