ABSTRACT
Italian B-movies are an excellent starting point to gauge the popularity of Julius Caesar. Directors who churn out low-budget comedies will not alienate their audiences by weaving into their scripts obscure theatrical references. If they insert parodies or quotations from Shakespeare’s plays—and they occasionally do—they usually stick to the most famous passages from Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello, the playwright’s “greatest hits” in Italy. Although not very frequent, comic references to Julius Caesar do occur, and they highlight some of the difficulties that Italian theater companies encounter when performing this Shakespearean tragedy.
