Coincidal Destruction

I recently attended The Citadel's production of Julius Caeser.
I have to say it was absolutely brutal! They completely bastardized the play! Allow me to rant:

The dialogue was kept in tact for the most part, which was nice to see. Having said that, many names were mispronounced. I am aware of both the latin pronunciations of those names, and of the English interpretations of those names; what those actors were spewing were neither.

Later on in the play, after the unnecessarily short assassination of Julius Caeser, and the war began between the two resulting leaders, guns were brought into the scene. Let me rephrase that: semi-automatic weapons were used, as well as allusion to large explosives. On top of that, the uniforms worn were a cross between Star Wars uniforms and Soviet Russian. Not to mention Anthony’s, which was basically an American WWII uniform. I was disgusted by their lack of respect for not only Shakespeare’s interepretation of Julius Caeser’s assassination, and its effects, but also for the true events that occured. But think about it, in Shakespeare’s play, all dialogue alluding to murder, or suicide, pertained to stabbing or blades. The play kept true to this dialogue. Therefore, it made no sense, and had no relevance to introduce guns and (what I can only assume to be) supposed futuristic uniforms.

Furthermore, the Citadel’s version of the play did not once mention the most important part of the story: Julius Caeser’s assassination was the effective end of the Roman Republic, and of the Roman Empire. His assassination lead to an entire nation’s downfall.

There are many more concerns to be addressed, but none that I choose to address at this moment.

Rome may not have been built in a day, but its destruction took less than 24 hours.
The 3 hours endured watching the Citadel’s interpretation of Julius Caeser was, by every means, a destruction of theater, and a bastardization and dramatic display of disrespect towards both history and Shakespeare’s inspiring interpretation of said history.