The Royal Shakespeare Company’s all-female production of Julius Caesar will open with 14 trigger warnings covering violence, weapons, fake blood, grief and strong language. Critics have called the approach excessive and patronising, arguing that audiences should be allowed to experience Shakespeare’s shocking and emotional drama without such detailed advance notices.

First Encounters: Julius Caesar stars Dame Harriet Walter as Brutus and is staged as though performed by inmates of a women’s prison. It will tour five secondary schools before opening at Stratford-upon-Avon’s The Other Place in November, with warnings including an onstage stabbing close to the audience, deaths, suicide, imprisonment and recorded gunfire; the RSC says the guidance helps people decide whether to attend with children.