| NEW YORK (AP) -- The Latest on The Public Theater's production of "Julius Caesar," featuring a Donald Trump-like main character killed onstage (all times local): |
7:10 p.m.
New York City's comptroller has come to the defense of the
city's respected Public Theater after it caused an outcry over its production
of "Julius Caesar" portraying the assassinated title character
looking like Donald Trump in a business suit.
Scott M. Stringer has bought copies of Shakespeare's
"Julius Caesar" and mailed them with letters to the heads of Delta
Air Lines and Bank of America, which pulled their sponsorship of the show.
Stringer says in his letters: "Art matters. The First
Amendment matters. Expression matters." The letters go on the say the
decision to withdraw support "sends the wrong message" and
"undermines the very vibrancy of the cause you chose to support in the
first place."
The theater said Monday it stands behind its production.
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3:33 p.m.
The Public Theater says in a statement
Monday that it stands "completely behind" its production of
"Julius Caesar" which portrays the assassinated title character
looking like Donald Trump in a business suit.
The nonprofit theater that prides itself
on its innovative and challenging work says it is aware that the play has
"provoked heated discussion" among audiences, sponsors and
supporters.
"We recognize that our
interpretation of the play has provoked heated discussion; audiences, sponsors
and supporters have expressed varying viewpoints and opinions. Such discussion
is exactly the goal of our civically-engaged theater; this discourse is the
basis of a healthy democracy."
Controversy over the work has prompted
Delta Air Lines and Bank of America to pull their sponsorship of the show that
is being performed as part of Shakespeare in the Park in New York's Central
Park.
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2:07 p.m.
The knives are out for a new edgy
production of "Julius Caesar" that's cutting a little too close to
home for some fans of the White House.
Delta Air Lines and Bank of America have
pulled their sponsorship of The Public Theater's version of "Julius
Caesar" that portrays a Donald Trump-like dictator in a business suit who
gets knifed to death onstage.
Though the Public's version of
Shakespeare's classic play is unchanged from its 400-year-old original, the
production portrays Caesar with a gold bathtub and a pouty Slavic wife. Trump's
name is never mentioned but backlash was swift.
But New York University's Laurence Maslon
thinks any loss of funding will be compensated for by donations from people
worried about the apparent threat to artistic freedom.
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