Alexandra Petri
Friday
Washington Post humorist Alexandra Petri, intrigued by Trump supporters attacking a Julius Caesar production, recently imagined other plays they might object to. Her riff was spurred by the Fox News tweet,
NYC Play Appears To Depict Assassination of @POTUS.
To which she responded,
This is only correct, as most of Shakespeare — and, indeed, the Western canon — was written as a mean referendum on the Trump administration and ought to be banned accordingly.
Here is her rationale for some of the plays that should be banned:
Hamlet: NYC play erroneously suggests that a man’s son-in-law might not be fully supportive of the job he is doing in charge of a country.
As You Like It: Woman wandering in the woods to get away from the current regime is portrayed as some sort of hero.
Death of a Salesman: NYC play shows an old man who is no longer very good at his job and has placed too much confidence in his incompetent sons.
The Lion in Winter: Same, but the man also has a much younger wife.
Becket: Play erroneously implies that “hoping” something will happen during a private meeting could be viewed as a threat.
A Raisin in the Sun: NYC play appears to criticize bias in housing.
Doctor Faustus: NYC play appears to depict man who gets everything he wanted but is so, so unhappy, all the time, and nothing can fill that void within him, and also he employs Satan.
Corporate sponsorship of Julius Caesar also tickled Petri’s funny bone so she started a twitter thread imagining appropriate sponsors for different classics. The first two are hers, the following those of respondents:
Petri: Oedipus Rex, brought to you by Ancestry.com
Petri: Clorox Presents Macbeth (Nothing gets damned spots out like Clorox bleach!)
A Doll’s House, presented by Mattel
A Raisin in the Sun, brought to you by California Raisins
Master Builder, a Lego Production
Rent, produced in partnership with Century 21
A Long Day’s Journey into Night, present by Ambien
LeCreuset presents The Crucible
The ICE Man Cometh, brought to you by the Department of Homeland Security
Here’s one last very clever Petri-ism. She read the following Newt Gingrich tweet in support of Trump and connected all the dots:
Gingrich: Mueller is now clearly the tip of the deep state spear aimed at destroying or at a minimum undermining and crippling the Trump presidency.
Petri:
deep state spear
deep shake spear
SHAKESPEARE?
Petri would make a great Shakespearean fool–which, as anyone who knows Shakespeare will tell you, is a compliment of the highest order.