Review: A Trumpian 'Caesar' at Shakespeare in the Park

Oskar Eustis has slimmed down and sharpened Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" to make a stinging political point: Democracy is fragile and Donald Trump is not the worst thing that can happen to America. 

If a leader's exit is not handled right, that is, if he's "assassinated" using political or violent measures instead of constitutional ones, the door is then — this production warns — open to a dismantling of democracy. The remedy can be worse than the disease.

This "Caesar," part of the Public's free Shakespeare in the Park program, is mind-crushingly good, in no small part because it speaks precisely to our times. Images of the Constitution and the American Founding Fathers loom over the set. Caesar himself (Gregg Henry, acting with a wink) has a yellow comb-over and a red tie and soaks himself in a mirrored bathtub. His wife Calpurnia (Tina Benko) has a Slavic accent and waves her husband away when he tries to hold her hand. Protesters wear pussy hats and "Resist" armbands and wrangle with the police in a "Black-Lives-Matter"-style. Those police are clad in riot gear.

It is, perhaps, too on-the-nose; but it is not — as conservative and alt-right media outlets have suggested — a show that glorifies the assassination of the President. In fact, it is almost the opposite of that. Yet Delta Airlines and Bank of America said Sunday they would no longer sponsor this production. In a statement, the bank said the production was "intended to provoke and offend." 

Provoke thought? Certainly. Offend? Only if you take that one scene in isolation.

What is offensive here is corporations big-footing a non-profit arts organization that is doing precisely what art should do during tense political moments like these: Questioning authority, providing context, and giving a warning.

Shakespeare wrote about a tyrant and what happens after he is deposed. Currently, many in our country have wondered whether Trump will serve out his full term and what the fallout would be if he doesn't. "Julius Caesar" is rife with pointed language about power and its abuses, and it's sobering how many of those lines from 500 years ago continue to speak directly to our times. 

For example, there's this, from Caesar's friend and assassin Brutus (Corey Stoll): "The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power."

"Julius Caesar" isn't one of the best-known Shakespeare plays, but the outline is likely familiar. Caesar is the new leader of the democracy of Rome, and some, like his friend Marc Anthony, want to crown him king. He refuses — barely — after the populace boos him down. But a small group fears he will become king eventually, and because he's a tyrant, they hatch an assassination plot, instead of waiting to see if the people will vote him down. That leads to the government — and thus democracy — being overthrown completely by Octavius (Robert Gilbert) and Marc Anthony, for the next several hundred years.

Marc Anthony is played as a woman (despite retaining the male name) by the thrilling Elizabeth Marvel, from television's "Homeland." Marvel has a light touch, and her character's giddy love of Caesar hides a canny political mind and charismatic orator. It is she who turns the fickle crowd by manipulating language (that famous "Friends, Romans, countrymen" speech), encouraging them to see tyranny as liberty and slavery as freedom. 

The "resist" crowd, stirred to near madness, tears down the giant posters of the Constitution that grace the set, the drawings of Lincoln and Washington, and exit deliriously happy, not understanding what they have done.

Eustis only added one line to the show. The conspirator Casca (Teagle F. Bougere) says that people would have forgiven Caesar if he "had stabbed their mothers on Fifth Avenue." That's a callback to something Trump said during the presidential campaign: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters."

That's a swipe at Trump. But the bigger hit is to the idea that he is not a legitimate president, and should be taken down by any means necessary. The Public's production is crystal clear that if Trump is overthrown by anything but an election, the outcome might be dark indeed. 

WNYC is a media partner for the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park.