Two protesters interrupted the final Public Theater performance of “Julius Caesar” in Central Park Sunday night and were removed by security guards.
During the first act of the play, which portrayed Caesar as President Donald Trump, the New York Daily News reported 26-year-old Jovanni Valle of Brooklyn jumped on stage and shouted “Liberal hate kills” and “Goebbels would be proud,” referring to the propaganda minister of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Salvatore Cipolla, 28, of Oceanside, New York, got onto the stage about 20 minutes later and also shouted “Goebbels would be proud,” the Daily News reported.
Both were escorted off the stage quickly by security, and the play went on.
Many on the right and a few on the left have been critical of the play, saying its portrayal of Caesar’s stabbing could incite violence against Trump.
According to the Daily News, Cipolla tweeted a meme referencing the 1988 video game "Bad Dudes" before rushing the stage. It said, “The President has been stabbed by leftists. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President.”
The two men were arrested for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, and Cipolla was released from jail around 11:30 p.m. No word was given about Valle’s release.
During Friday night's performance, blogger Laura Loomer got up on the stage Friday night and yelled, “Stop the normalization of political violence against the right,” the Daily News reported. She also was arrested and charged.
The play depicts Caesar/Trump being stabbed to death by women and minorities, and his wife Calpurnia is portrayed with Melania Trump’s Slovenian accent.
Sponsors Delta and Bank of America pulled out of sponsoring the "Julius Caesar" performances after they learned about the play’s content.
Twitter users' reactions to the interruptions were mixed.
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