A pair of protesters—apparently scandalized by the political ideas contained in a play not only older than themselves, but also the country they live in and seem to enjoy yelling about—interrupted a performance of Julius Caesar tonight, put on by the New York Public Theater. The Theater’s interpretation of the Shakespeare classic—which features a blonde-haired, cellphone-addicted Caesar with intentional similarities to Donald Trump—has whipped up a healthy head of controversy in recent weeks, with Delta Airlines and Bank Of America pulling funding for the show, and desperate finger-pointers jabbing at it as an “inspiration” for the shootings in Alexandria this week.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, two people started shouting in the middle of the performance tonight, filming the incident for their Periscope, and calling everybody in the audience “Nazis.” “Stop the normalization of political violence against the right! This is unacceptable,” the other yelled, adding, “Shame on Kathy Griffin”—who, as far as we know, wasn’t in attendance, and has never performed in any of Shakespeare’s historical tragedies.
The duo was quickly removed by security, but not before really making people think about the consequences and dangers of political violence, which they were already doing, because—as pointed out in a note the theater itself has posted—that’s the whole point of Julius Caesar. (Maybe they should have tried barging into Jersey Boys, instead, if they really wanted to blow some minds.)