Et Tu, Shylock?

Um, can we check that script again?

ASPEN, Colo. - Julius Caesar lay dead and Brutus was talking to his co-conspirators about swords and blood when he paused and excused himself, saying "I seem to have stabbed myself." Aspen actor/director Kent Hudson Reed accidently cut his leg open with the knife he was using in an outdoor performance of "Scenes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar" on Wednesday.

He tried to carry on, "but my boot was filling up with blood and I was flubbing my lines, wondering if I was going to pass out, wondering if the audience could see the blood."

Portia (Susan Mauntel) took Brutus to a hospital for stitches and play narrator Tyson Young announced the performance was canceled.

"That's what you get for trying to kill Caesar," he said.

Reed said actors normally don't use real knives, but the scene was set up so none of the performers were close enough to hurt each other.

"But I hadn't thought an actor might stab himself," he said.

Reed said the show would go on, although Brutus might be limping for a while.

Portia? No doubt she wanted to ask the docs if she could borrow a pound of flesh.

Too bad they cancelled the rest of the performance - I was looking forward to Mark Antony brooding over Yorick's skull and Cassius watching the approach of Birnham Wood.

UPDATE: My bad. Turns out there is a Portia in Julius Caesar, a fact I certainly didn't remember and didn't bother to check before going for teh funny. Oops.