A liberal interpretation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has many in Philadelphia’s Asian American community outraged, reports the Huffington Post.
In the play put on by the Lantern Theater company, director Charles MacMahon has Rome conquered by a Japanese feudal society.
Characters played by white men and one black guy all dressed in kimonos and blowing flutes grace the stage. AsAmNews reported on this controversy back in March.
Philadelphia theater artist Makoto Hirano who originally brought attention to this issue recently sat down with the director to discuss the issue.
“The overall look was originally thought of more as a departure from, a hybrid, rather than try to do something that was authentically Japanese,” said MacMahon. In my own self critique afterwards, and its been pointed out to me, and I have to agree with it, is that what we ended up with looked too close to Japanese.”
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You can watch the entire exchange below.