He described a lofty scene: boxes with two large buffet tables, serving Cantonese and Western food, Yung Chow fried rice next to roast beef.
Shakespeare even makes it sound as if the assassins had given the first performance of the play: "How many ages hence/Shall this our lofty scene be acted over/ In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!" They try to convert the murder into a ritual sacrifice, to be perpetually re-enacted not in churches but in theatres.
But when Cassius asks, "How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown?" we can only answer that we know one such age all too well.
It had less lofty historical aspirations or scene-setting duties than its elder sibling, Danny Boyle's wonder creation, born two-and-a-bit weeks ago.
The most striking poet in this grouping, Jazra Khaleed, was born in Chechnya, "half Chechen Muslim and half Greek," and is influenced as much by Greece's underground rap scene as by any lofty poetic forefathers.
Ramses II added an outer court, decorated with colossal statues of himself between the pillars of a double colonnade, and a lofty pylon on which he depicted festival scenes and episodes from his wars in Syria.
The copper sheeting, black-and-white tiles, curving booths, muted lighting, antique mirrors, huge bar and lofty ceiling reminded me immediately of a scene from a 40's movie.
I wish that I had taped the scene because to hear the lofty rhetorical flourishes of the Actor Studio member Whitmore was surreal.
The pottery wheels in the corner of the large, lofty space prompt regular conversations about that famous scene from "Ghost" in which Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze got muddy over love.
Punk aimed to obliterate the widening gap between lofty artist and fan, as did the 1980s DIY scene in which fans would let touring bands kip on their bedroom floor.
