September 17, 2004
AT LEAST THEY’RE OVER ART FOR ART’S SAKE
Donald Rumsfelds Abound in Wave of London Plays on Iraq War (Bloomberg.com, September 17th, 2004)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is a character in at least three plays in London.There's the Rumsfeld who says looting may be an inevitable byproduct of the birth of democracy. There's the Rumsfeld who thinks being imprisoned in cages in Cuba is not unlike a holiday in the sun. And there's Rum-Rum, who suspects, but can't quite prove, his Middle Eastern enemy kills babies and worships Satan.
The three plays -- David Hare's ``Stuff Happens,'' Tim Robbins's ``Embedded'' and ``Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'' by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo -- are among a group of political productions flooding London stages with Iraq War themes, both overt and implied. The plays thrive because playwrights are filling the gap some journalists left in their war coverage, Robbins said.
In my play, Gabriel and a host of angels visit Rumsfeld every night during the war and bless his courage and wisdom to the exquisite sounds of a massed celestial choir. I wrote it because I was ticked off CNN edited that out of their coverage.
Posted by Peter Burnet at September 17, 2004 12:01 PMI can only quote that magnificent quote from an article in..... THE GUARDIAN!!!!!
"The most cogent reason out there to vote George Bush out of office is that it will put an end to the obesity of appallingly bad art that he has inspired."
Posted by: Andrew X at September 17, 2004 12:41 PMThere's a lot of white, late middle-aged actors who are paying their rent on the boom in anti-Bush plays.
Posted by: Governor Breck at September 17, 2004 12:51 PMIsn't the creativity, spontaneity, and diversity of the artistic class a wonder to behold?
Posted by: Jeff at September 17, 2004 1:02 PMIf the purpose of art is to offend sensibilities of the audience, then these guys aren't artists.
This stuff should be featured in a review by
Leonard Pinth-Garnell — "Bad Political Theatre".
Some of the men (and boys) released from Guantanamo later told reporters that it was the highest standard of living that they'd ever had, and many of them had put on ten or twenty pounds.
Saddam did kill babies.
He ordered children executed by the hundreds, and he sealed the fate of tens of thousands of infants by building palaces and buying contraband weapons, instead of using the oil-for-food money to aid the populace.
Anyone who's willing to write or produce a play claiming that Rumsfeld is more evil than Saddam ought to be shipped to Darfur forthwith.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at September 17, 2004 5:58 PM