BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 19, 2017) — Cinebon to the new week, for which we give thanks and blessings. We also pass condolences to the family of the north county State Rep. Gail Cariddi, who died over the weekend.

THEY SHOOT TAXPAYERS, DON’T THEY? — Now that the Beacon Cinema has its new lounge seats, we can all relax. Taxpayers paid for the Lay-Z-Boyz but far fewer shall be able to enjoy them. The conversion from grown-up seating to immature PamperMe(R) butt, back, and body rests reduces the Beacon’s capacity from a little more than 800 to under 400. The fiction writers who have to work ever-more desperately to paint the false backdrop of a “bustling” downtown Pittsfield have to work a lot harder these days. Actually, THE PLANET has learned to genuine reason behind the move. The flick house’s owner cites competitive pressures. That’s only partially true. Our investigation tells a far different story. A well-placed source with inside connections to the Downtown Dollar tells us the switch in the upholstery resulted mainly from lack of business. Not enough customers have been entering those hallowed portals to buy overpriced tickets to garbage films. With the switch to recliners and fewer than half the capacity, the same number of customers will make it seem as if the Silver Screen flop house has undergone, you know, a “renaissance.” Two hundred in 800 seats is 25%. The same number in less than 400 loungers “boosts” attendance to nearly 50 percent. Stop us if you’ve heard that one before. Oh yeah, and to make the story even better, the new loungers were paid for with public money.

BURYING ‘CAESAR’ — Perhaps you’re familiar with the Public Theater‘s inflammatory staging of William Shakespeare‘s Julius Caesar. The play features Julius as a Donald Trump-like character. complete with trademark Alex Baldwin orange wig, long red tie, and dark suit. When the play reaches the Ides of March and Brutus (no, not Popeye‘s archenemy) leads the mob to assassinate the dictator, there’s no mistaking the call to violence. Kill the President. While it doesn’t reach a Secret Service investigatory threshold, the naked reference to killing the president has, like everything else today, furthered and fanned the pure, political hatred that has gripped America.

The story has taken a decided local angle. The stabbing death of the Trump-like character in Willy’s play has led to an outpouring of invective directed at the Public Theater but sent to Shakespeare troups across America. Leading the league in that qualified group is the pre-eminent Shakespeare & Company (S&Co) in Lenox. As of this past Friday, S&Co has been inundated with almost 50 messages (social media, e-mail, phone) including threats of death, rape, and the like. Allyn Burrows, S&Co.’s artistic director, says the theater has been accused of encouraging violence, including one message hoping all at S&Co. have “the worst possible life you could have and hope you all get sick and die.”

Not the only problem with this is that the Lenox theater isn’t the company putting on the play. Nonetheless, angry conservatives and liberals wishing to cause trouble, no doubt googling “Shakespeare theaters” or some other similar search term, see S&Co. at or near the top of the list and make no distinctions. One condemns all — never an intelligent approach. Of course, intelligence plays little part in what passes for contemporary political “dialogue” in America. There’s too much hatred, too much “us” vs. “them.”

No doubt the shooting of Republican congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House’s third ranking Republican, has poured napalm on the bonfire. Scalise was gunned down while practicing for the congressional baseball game. Scalise has hundreds of bullet fragment’s in his body, and as of press time, is still fighting for his life.

Burrows says neither he nor anyone else in the group has ever seen anything like what’s happened.

“You have to understand,” he said, “we work primarily with a 400-year-old playwright. There’s been a lot of water over the dam. I don’t know that it’s ever been as acute. We’ve had people express severe incredulity, but we’re in an environment now where the verbal gloves are off.” That being said, Burrows said the group “stands shoulder to shoulder with Shakespeare in the Park and their right to make art.”

THE PLANET wonders if the support for artistic license would include a restaging of “Caesar” as a black man who, instead of being stabbed, gets lynched.

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“O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers.” — William Shakespeare, from “Caesar”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE”

LOVE TO ALL.