It's all rather vile. And the reaction of corporate sponsors pulling out reminds me how uneasy I was at the "victory" of getting sponsors to withdraw from various trashy tabloid right outlets - all it does is highlight the degree to which corporations control the arts, and will protect their bottom line by any means.
And yes, one would have to be an extraordinary dunce to think that Julius Caesar advocates for political assisinations; not to mention the play (like most of Shakespeare's tragedies) is constantly reappriaoted to fit in with contemporary figures - heck Shakespeare himself was probably writing with a certain senile queen in mind.
Caesar's assassins are clearly and definitively shown as making a wrong and calamitous decision and paying for it with their lives and the destruction of everything they believe in. Anyone who comes out of that play thinking "Shakespeare supports assassination" missed the entire point of the production. Brutus and Cassius lose everything and destroy the last vestiges of the Republic they loved and ended up losing their own lives as Caesar's vengeful heirs use the tragedy to consolidate power.
This. If anything, we should send any liberal we suspect might want to do something rash and stupid to go watch this production and learn from Brutus's mistake.
