Sponsors cry foul over blond Caesar with pouty Slavic wife

A STAGING of Julius Caesar went ahead in Central Park in New York last night despite sponsors withdrawing their support after discovering Caesar was styled to look like Donald Trump.

Delta Air Lines and Bank of America cancelled their sponsorship of The Public Theater after an outcry, which was heightened on Sunday by a report on Fox News describing the blond, suited actor “being brutally stabbed to death by women and minorities”.

Donald Trump Jr, who has backed his father’s criticism of political correctness, wrote angrily on Twitter: “Serious question, when does ‘art’ become political speech and does that change things?”

Jesse Green, theatre critic at The New York Times, said the “depiction of a petulant, blondish Caesar in a blue suit, complete with gold bathtub and a pouty Slavic wife takes onstage Trumptrolling to a startling new level”.

The cast and director defended the production. Gregg Henry, who plays Caesar, said the emperor “became drunk with ego, drunk with power, drunk with ambition and the belief that he and he alone must rule the world. The idea for me was to try and show you that this could be Trump.”

Henry, who bears a striking resemblance to the US president, told Backstage magazine that the director’s vision speaks “very much to a warning that Shakespeare had as well”.

He said: “When a tyrant comes to power, it’s very important how you then try to deal with the problem – because if you don’t deal with the problem in a proper way, you can end up losing democracy for like 2,000 years.”

Oskar Eustis, the director, said: “Julius Caesar can be read as a warning parable to those who try to fight for democracy by undemocratic means.”

A social media storm erupted, with Twitter users asking whether a depic- tion of an assassinated Barack Obama onstage would be deemed acceptable.

Mr Eustis insisted: “Anyone seeing our production of Julius Caesar will realise it in no way advocates violence towards anyone.”

A Delta statement said: “No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of Julius Caesar at this summer’s free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines’ values.” A spokesman for Bank of America said: “The Public Theater chose to present Julius Caesar in a way that was intended to provoke and offend.”