Colorado Shakespeare Festival opens a Julius Caesar that director Anthony Powell hopes will speak for itself

By Avery Anderson
For the DCPA NewsCenter

When Julius Caesar is assassinated in Shakespeare’s famous play of the same name, it sends shock waves through the audience. But when a Caesar who uncannily resembled President Donald Trump was assassinated in a recent New York production of the play, it sent shock waves through the entire country.

Julius Caesar has been a hot topic since the Public Theatre played up similarities between the title character and Donald Trump. The murder of a Caesar who was played by a white actor wearing a business suit and a long, red tie, struck some as too close to home. Sponsors Delta and Bank of America pulled their support of the production. After word of the controversy quickly spread, pro-Trump protesters stormed the stage and halted a performance, to the derision of the crowd.

Delta said the production did not reflect its values and that the “artistic and creative direction crossed the line on the standards of good taste.” Bank of America felt the production “intended to provoke or offend.”

The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund was quick to condemn Delta and Bank of America for their decision.

“Good taste is a matter of opinion, and an ‘intention to provoke’ may be an integral part of a play’s mission,” President John Weidman and Executive Director Ralph Sevush said in a combined statement. “Delta doesn’t appear to have had a problem with the ‘values’ or ‘taste’ of such depictions before.”

In 2012, The Guthrie Theater’s production portrayed Caesar as then-President Obama. Delta sponsored that production in Minneapolis, but did not pull its support.

Now, amid the still-swirling discourse about the rights and responsibilities of both artists and sponsors, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is set to open its own take on Julius Caesar on Saturday at the Mary Rippon outdoor amphitheatre in Boulder. And the company is already receiving calls from curious patrons wanting to know just how political this staging might be.

All over the country, from New York to Oklahoma to Oregon, theaters are staging Julius Caesar this year, the New York Times opined, “as a way to chew over politics, power, democracy and authoritarianism at a moment when a populist leader with a fondness for executive power has moved into the White House.”

Actress explores Hamlet’s feminine side for Colorado Shakes

Shakespeare’s play has always been about far more than the death of Julius Caesar, who is killed in the middle of the play — bloodily — by Brutus and his band of co-conspirators. In this familiar world, Caesar is an increasingly powerful leader who is killed in the name of saving the republic. But be careful what you wish for, Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt told the Times, noting the chaos and bloodshed the assassination unleashes. “The very thing that you think you’re doing to protect the republic can lead to the end of the republic,” Greenblatt said.

The Public’s Oskar Eustis, one of the most influential directors in the American theatre, said he decided immediately after the election that his title character would be a provocative stand-in for President Trump. “When we hold the mirror up to nature,” Eustis said in his opening-night speech, “often what we reveal are disturbing, upsetting, provoking things. That’s our job.”

In his program notes, Eustis added, “Julius Caesar can be read as a warning parable to those who try to fight for democracy by undemocratic means.”

Shana Cooper, who is directing Julius Caesar for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this summer, believes that although there is an assassination scene in Julius Caesar, the play is not encouraging the death of the president or anyone else.

“Julius Caesar in no way condones assassination,” Cooper wrote in a letter to audiences. “In fact, it is actually a story about the relentless cycle of violence that is set in motion by that singular act. It is a story about a group of citizens who allow their civic love to be contorted by the conclusion that the only way to oppose a world of tyranny is with the world’s weapons. And that choice to continue the cycle of violence costs them everything: family, friends, and the very republic they sought to protect.”

(Pictured above right: The Public Theatre’s staging of a Trump-like ‘Julius Caesar.’ Photo by Joan Marcus.)

Why Julius Caesar speaks to politics today. With or without Trump.

The Public Theatre received threats because of the controversy. The New York Classical Theatre, Shakespeare and Company, and Shakespeare Theatre Company have as well – even though none of them are producing Julius Caesar this year.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival Director Anthony Powell hopes the controversy ends up being much ado about nothing in Boulder. He says his production will be staged as written, set in Shakespeare’s time.

“It is super radical that we are setting it in Ancient Rome,” Powell joked. “It seems like that was the right decision.”

Powell has been a longtime director for the DCPA Theatre Company (most recently Lord of the Flies and All the Way), but Julius Caesar is his first production with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He said the New York controversy is in no way impacting what he is doing in Boulder. In fact, “I wish people would stop talking about it,” he said, though he expects the subject to be a popular topic in post-show talkbacks.

(Story continues below the photo.)

Robert Sicular, who is playing Julius Caesar in Powell’s production, said the controversy has not even come up for discussion in rehearsals.

“We are just doing the show and trying to make it work, tell the story, have the characters believable and speak the language well,” Sicular said. “This is probably my 85th to 90th Shakespeare play, and I have found that the more outlandish the concept, the less accessible the production.”

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

Sicular is well-known to DCPA Theatre Company audiences, having performed in 11 plays since 1994, most recently Heartbreak House, The Liar and The Taming of the Shrew.

“I understand how theatre can be used for political aims,” Sicular said. “But I think it is actually more powerful when the play can speak for itself.”

Powell said Shakespeare can be presented  in any form as long as the creative team and actors do their part.

“I don’t think Shakespeare needs to be done in tights or togas,” Powell said. “But it makes a strong statement about how timeless Shakespeare’s themes are. You can set it in Rome; you can set it on the moon. It doesn’t matter. As long as we do our job right, the audience will make their own connections between then and now.”

Julius Caesar: Ticket information

• Performance July 8 through Aug. 12
• Performance dates and times vary
• Mary Rippon Outdoor Amphitheatre
• Tickets $20-$70
• Call 303-492-8008 or go to cupresents.org

About the author
Avery Anderson is interning with the DCPA NewsCenter for the summer. He is the General Manager and producer of Met TV at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He was won two Heartland Student Emmy Awards for his work on The Met Report. He has a passion for local arts and culture and enjoys covering theatres across the Denver area and the state. Follow him on Twitter and @a_anderson64.