Julius Caesar (The Public Theater)

"Shakespeare never shied away from thinly veiled allusions to his contemporaries...In that sense, Eustis' heavy-handed approach is spiritually a lot closer to the original than any toga and sandals staging...Eustis makes his production feel exhilarating, vital, and just a bit dangerous...The lead players also make these mythic historical figures feel present and tangible...Of course, we must suspend our disbelief in important ways to fully embrace Caesar as a cautionary tale for our time." Full Review

"Eustis’ modern-dress staging at Shakespeare in the Park draws parallels, in broad strokes with thick Sharpies and neon-colored highlighters...Turning Caesar, an efficient leader, into a comic caricature makes little sense. It may be fun to watch but it also undermines the show’s powerful ambiguity...Busy and loud, the show moves at a fast clip...Some members of the cast stand out, though none more than the charismatic Elizabeth Marvel." Full Review

"In most Shakespeare productions in the park, mob scenes have to be taken on faith, with the same handful of actors scurrying about trying to look like legions. But this surging Roman mob has real numbers, and its fickle allegiances to one demagogic political figure after another makes it genuinely frightening...The Trump analogy doesn’t hold up once Caesar is assassinated...The instigators of violence are exceptionally well cast and forcefully played." Full Review

"The play is not an endorsement of violence; it’s a cautionary tale about its risks...Although the cast delivers Shakespeare’s verse with remarkable lucidity, the characters are secondary; the focus of this production is on political, not personal, tragedy, and it offers a dark vision of the rise of authoritarianism. Yes, the repeated allusions to Trump elicit giggles of recognition at first. But when the smoke clears two hours later, nobody is laughing." Full Review

“Eustis doesn’t sand down the subtleties and ironies of the text to score cheap points…The play is there, acted by a strong ensemble. Stoll renders Brutus faithfully as an unshowy, principled bureaucrat, and Thompson has crafted the most noble and righteous Cassius I’ve seen. Sure, Cheeto Caesar is a gimmick born of anger and disgust, but it’s a gimmick with teeth — and one we need in order to probe the ever-widening fault lines between showmanship and ethical statecraft." Full Review

"We get the idea immediately, and since it doesn’t go anywhere particularly interesting after that we just as quickly lose interest. Its would-be provocative central conceit notwithstanding, this is a bland, unevenly acted production of Shakespeare’s play whose main virtues are its fast pace and vigorous energy...Further illustrating the production’s lack of subtlety is David Rockwell’s ugly-as-sin set design...A production whose aesthetic gears are grinding too noisily and predictably." Full Review

"The immediate result is that these olden characters from ancient Rome seem to be of our time, speaking directly to us...Eustis heightens the effect by building the production on contemporary performances from strong stage performers...The current Trumpian version is attention getting, certainly, and enhances the drama. The real-to-life links go astray, methinks, once the title character meets his fate on the Ides of March and cedes the spotlight for most of the rest of the evening." Full Review

"The first half...is great, nasty fun, even if it’s preaching to the choir. To the extent there is a problem with the Trumpification of 'Julius Caesar'...it arises in the second half...It is then that we are faced with the ways that Trump and Caesar never properly scanned, and an aftermath in which that confusion breeds more confusion...To be fair, this is a problem built into the play...The fault is not in the stars, as good a group as the Public has assembled in the park in years." Full Review

"The updating and non-traditional acting assignments largely work out...My only quarrel with this black-and-white concept is it robs the play of Shakespeare’s rich, grey-hued ambiguities...Despite this shortcoming, Eustis has created a stirring and gripping 'Caesar' which barrels along at a rapid two hours with no intermission...This is probably the most political transposition of 'JC' from ancient Rome to a contemporary setting to play on or Off-Broadway." Full Review

“Making Caesar a buffoon—a doppelganger for the president who, in all likelihood, is loathed by virtually everyone in attendance at the Delacorte—changes the play's stakes and muddies its intent...This is too bad because, much of the time, this 'Julius Caesar' is clearly, powerfully staged, facilitated by one of the best casts to appear in the Delacorte in some time—and that's saying something…The entire cast scores in roles large and small...This ‘Julius Caesar’ has plenty to offer.” Full Review

“A ho-hum production that has so many wink-wink elements stuffed into it that it becomes unbalanced...Stoll handles the role of Brutus with an easy grace that is deceptive. He makes it look easy…The rest of the cast does not fare so well. John Douglas Thompson‘s delivery is stiff...Eustis has stuffed this production with crowds and chaos and clamber to within an inch of its life. It is packed so full that the skeleton of the story is overshadowed.” Full Review

“There's no denying the present version's entertainment value for liberal audiences. It doesn't matter if makes sense so long as it provides a valve for letting off political steam in these troubled times…For all the seriousness of what's depicted, the Caesar scenes play more like political comedy…than solemn historical drama about the abuse of power and the collapse of democracy…Caesar…dies midway through; once he's gone, the production's air, shall we say, begins to leak.” Full Review

"This heavy-handed, uncomfortable and unnecessary stroke of provocation on the part of Eustis turns what might have otherwise been a decent production into a jumbled mess...Notwithstanding, the production contains great performances from Stoll and Thompson...Any worthwhile production of 'Julius Caesar' will prompt an audience to ponder its own political realities...Eustis should have trusted that his audience could draw its own parallels." Full Review

"Yes, the Trump look gets the laugh that Eustis is after...Granted, these notions are effectively amusing. But almost from beginning to end they represent a surprising misreading of the work...Julius Caesar was a renowned warrior, whereas we know Trump never served a day in the armed forces...Eustis’ casting also raises some questions...While so much of this whole undertaking is off-kilter, it is important to mention that there are well-done segments." Full Review

"I was not prepared for the deconstruction of a play that made me wonder if I even knew this play at all...This production, Oskar Eustis and the Public Theater have gone too far...The show is so muddled and I blame this on Mr. Eustis as these are all winning and competent actors...Countless audience goers were left in shock, as was I. Violence begets violence and this was just in poor taste." Full Review

"Shakespeare scored contemporary political points by cloaking them in historical allegories. Eustis demands no such imaginative leap...The production is meant to provoke...A very good production whose singular drawback is that it makes no sense...Even given its rough satirical edge, the pleasures and the faults of this production lie not in the stars but in ourselves: It’s a staging for this age, if not the ages." Full Review

"I’m not sure I find director Oskar Eustis’s stylistic choices all that provocative, just obvious...Marvel is exactly that, a marvel with a Southern senator’s drawl with an astounding ability to whip a crowd into a frenzy using every tactic available in her magnificent funeral oration...The look and feel create a sense of dread especially with the parallels being so closely aligned." Full Review

"It’s the Bard and not a Trumpified Caesar who gets assassinated in this tasteless and ill-conceived production—which has the presumably unintended effect of making Trump into a powerfully sympathetic character before it ultimately sputters into narrative incoherence...Eustis’ 'Julius Caesar' buckles under the weight of its cleverness and dissolves into confusion (and some tedium) just when it should be gathering momentum." Full Review

"Eustis abandons any pretense of subtlety in a bread-and-circuses approach...Once the Trump lampoon is abandoned, the tone becomes more serious. Corey Stoll is the most centered of the performers...The rest of the large cast is quite strong...It is hard to say how 'Julius Caesar' would have fared without the silliness in the first half of the production, but the cautionary tale against the possibility of anarchy comes through loud and clear." Full Review

"The parallels between the ambitious Roman emperor and our current commander-in-chief are evident in the text. Still, this modern concept, obvious as it is, brings a much-needed immediacy (and a little comedy) to the Bard’s often dreary history play...There’s plenty to praise in Eustis’ casting of the show’s primary roles...Not even Stoll and Thompson can make the play’s final section remotely interesting...You’ll be tired of lending your ears to petty philosophizing long before the final bow." Full Review

"Eustis isn’t going for subtlety...Populated with actors from no fewer than three of TV’s politically styled dramas, this 'Caesar' builds on anti-Trump asides forced into new children’s musicals this season and addressed in full-scale works like 'Building the Wall'...It’s shocking to see a band of conspirators in modern dress take turns plunging a dagger into the body of a leader so clearly modeled on America’s own...Henry's Caesar blusters and leers with every line...It’s quite a performance." Full Review

“Regardless of the politics involved, here's the big question: Is it entertaining? The answer: a most unequivocal yes...The performances are exceptionally strong. John Douglas Thompson is a forcefully animated Cassius. Gregg Henry does a mean Trump imitation as the nakedly ambitious Caesar - quite literally. In a twist of casting, Marc Antony is played by the always marvelous Elizabeth Marvel with a decidedly Southern twang. And Corey Stoll's brooding Brutus is most excellent." Full Review

“Eustis’ interpretation of the play might just be the most effective Shakespearean production this decade as it links past and future forcing us to engage with ideas that have never hit closer to home. This is never more effective than when we learn that we have been sitting next to actors playing the Roman mob…By having the loudest voices erupt from the audience’s perspective, Eustis is giving power back to the public, reclaiming the theatre as the ultimate forum.” Full Review

“In this production, the real tyrant is not Caesar, but its director, Oskar Eustis. He more clearly comes across as ambitious, inconsistent, with little regard for limits, manipulating his audience by playing to popular taste...But what about Shakespeare?…He was exploring the evolving tensions between populism and patrician heritage...Such themes don’t fit easily with Eustis’ grade-school notions. But they are far more intriguing than the tyrannical vision he crudely enforces in their place.” Full Review

"A blunt and vital revival that clearly speaks to our own times...These fine actors are capable of rendering the text clearly in American accents, and they’ve been directed to perform truthfully in a contemporary manner...I think some of the topical references were unsubtle; I think I’d have preferred to let the play speak for itself in terms of its relevance to the Trump Administration. But it’s the sort of experiment for which The Public is famous." Full Review