Edinburgh Arts Group to launch play about JKR called TERF C**T – where Daniel, Rupert and Emma stage an 'intervention'

[IwantToRetire]

The play, which will be performed on stage in New York next month and is being touted for the Fringe this summer, sees the author's 'surrogate children – Daniel, Rupert and Emma' stage an 'intervention'

Civil Disobedience, which has its roots in the Edinburgh Fringe and was launched by Barry and Josef Church-Woods in May 2016, described it as a "vital think-piece on Joanne, exploring just what could motivate a person with such privilege to take such a divisive stance on issues that affect her fans".

It has been written by Joshua Kaplan, a "queer screenwriter and playwright", and will be performed at The Actors Studio in New York City on Thursday, February 8.

A press release advertising the show claims: "Please note: TERF C**T is not a kill piece. It provides space for reflection and ultimately offers the audience time to explore some of the more contentious aspects of JK's life."

The synopsis for the show continues: "Joanne led a blessed life – for a woman. Billionaire. Literary phenomenon. Natural ginger. And most importantly, beloved. Completely beloved. Until she blew it all to hell.

"From book deals to divorces, family dysfunction to broken friendships, TERF C**T goes beyond the headlines to explore the woman that captivated a world with her books only to unravel a legacy with her tweets."

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/celebrity-news/jk-rowling-attacked-standing-up-31948409

They got an offer from India to do it but strangely didn't immediately jump at the chance

Ah but it's art ennit?
Dan doing OK for work is he?
How much has she just signed a contract for?

I was interested in the bit in the article that said she can do a convincing impersonation of Rowling's accent - because American actors are notoriously poor at British accents, and vice versa. Even stars like Renee Zellweger and Gwyneth Paltrow need voice coaches to sound convincing as British people.

Almost makes me want to go and see it just to see how bad it is. Almost!

I'm sure this will be a roaring success. Not.

In the meantime.

Child stars and JK Rowling — Harry Potter the TV series is under way!

https://www.thetimes.com/article/f9c7a853-05b6-4809-82e7-f676acb32c25?shareToken=066b366407a2eed21adb019e89f0659e

The TV series sounds amazing. Pity the original three aren't involved, they could have been cast as teachers or at least made cameo appearances. Never mind I'm sure they're plenty busy.

Big article in Sunday Times about the HBO TV series and Francesca Gardiner.

Child stars and JK Rowling — Harry Potter the TV series is under way!

https://www.thetimes.com/article/f9c7a853-05b6-4809-82e7-f676acb32c25?shareToken=33efb58a155a3068ae84ac748301d50c

The play has now been moved to the Assembly Rooms:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/7bec0008-7101-4f12-bce9-ac8b9c3850c2?shareToken=1d7f190a8825f12803e841aada401995

Such a confused article.

Play about JK Rowling trans row changes venue amid safety fears

It's about safety? Despite no gender critical feminist ever threatening a venue thus far.

Kaplan, 45, claimed they were forced to leave its original venue, the Sir Ian McKellen Theatre at Saint Stephens, after its owner, Peter Schaufuss, threatened to pull the plug following “unexpected” attention and negative press

Unexpected attention and negative press? So not safety fears.

The Times understands Saint Stephens offered the Terf team some compromises in order for the show to still go ahead.

So not pulling out.

However Kaplan and Church-Woods said they were unable to come to an agreement with the venue, as they felt these would compromise the artistic freedom of the show. Instead, they claimed, they felt forced to find an alternative venue.

So the play wants to pull out.

the venue was asking for reassurances from the Terf team for legal reasons.

Ah.

Except also Barry Church-Woods, Terf’s producer, added: “They never gave us the reason they felt they were not capable or able to present our play.”

“The offer to put their production on in Saint Stephens is there for them and they have chosen not to go ahead with it,”

Sounds like a row about the content, rather than safety worries.

Shortly after Terf was announced, Church-Woods received online abuse and threats.

What abuse and threats came from gender critical feminists?

In real life, there is bad behaviour on “all sides”

Sigh. I'm guessing that's what the play is going to be about. Quote tweeting out of context remarks in order to create a dramatised slanging match.

“We’re all people who struggle to shift one’s regard, heels dug into a belief.

Biology is not a belief.

But I do think that art is one of the mediums you can use to actually help people really contemplate why that’s the case.

Hmmm. Let's see shall we?

Yes, it's all over the place. Comments turned off, I don't know if they never had them open or if they were too scathing.

I'm getting the feeling that where people talk about heat and light, this play is going to take all the heat it can, and bung it into one format.

Untethered from any kind of light whatsoever.

It might be interesting to see the difference between the sorts of unhinged threats JKR gets, and the kind of reasoned comments she makes, though.

Well, so far the play has managed to move itself from St Stephens (no-one can be arsed) to the Assembly Rooms (central).

The play itself might not be all that bad and if it had been on at St Stephens I'd have suggested JKR goes along to support a struggling new production. As things are, they're doing very nicely out of JKR without her patronage.

I hugely admire the publicity-manipulation skills of the producer. Article in the Times, no less. He'll have a sell-out. And if not he can still make a huge fuss about dem ole'debbil transphobes keeping everyone away. Win-win.

Well if you can't do peculiar crap at a fringe festival where can you? It's the right place for it. Much experimental and self indulgent weirdness will be going on all over the place through the festival in amongst the good stuff, and it will be purely about bums on seats to try and make enough to break even. Any publicity that earns the money will be worth it.

I'm not into that particular show whatsoever, and see it as all of a piece with the general unfair misrepresentative dishonest monstering that JKR has been getting in recent years. However I'm not at all interested in banning it, protesting it, trying to get it shut down or any of that.

Let them speak.

Yes I'm anticipating it with interest.

To avoid libel, surely any JKR dialogue needs to be centred on what she's actually said, eg articles or tweets. It would be interesting if the play's unintended consequence was to introduce the audience to the actual reasonableness of her views, rather than the ones they imagine her to have!

I wonder if the actress playing jkrowling will feel threatened by the audience?

I agree. One thing I guarantee they will be taken out of context.

Wonder whether the producer regrets showing his misogynistic hand with that earlier title "Terf C*nt"?

Much reverse ferreting and reversing reality later (so scared of threats and violence from cross women waa waa waa) and he's turned himself into a victim via a clueless journalist 😑

Such a nasty title for a play.

It's ironic, innit?🙄

That's the thing: it's not. According to the (admittedly small) excerpt of the script I've seen online (can't recall where and it was a screenshot so not sure how to search), JKR is made to express anger and distress in quote emotive terms at giving the 3 Potter kids their start in acting and then being 'betrayed' by her.

That is, it leans into the trope of embittered old frustrated maternal/spinster figure, and in doing so casts a misogynistic interpretation of JKR's stance, depicting it as something more akin to emotional hysteria tan a principled socio-political stance on behalf of women.

Because older women are all bitter and emotional doncha know.

So, based on the bit I've seen, it seriously miscasts JKR, depicts her as a sort of embittered Miss Havisham character, and yes the libel case is going to be so full of lols.

In other news how I did laff this morning to read that the theatre at the fronge decided not to host the play, and the author is acting all confused and hurt over it.

I'm starting to think the play's author is perhaps not particularly bright.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/edinburgh-fringe-jk-rowling-play-terf-moves-venues-amid-protest-fears-8v3gtv60h

I see there are the usual insinuations that GC people will come and protest, as well as making it "unsafe". And yet the article goes on to suggest that the venue got cold feet about the some legal aspect of the play.

"The Times understands Saint Stephens offered the Terf team some compromises in order for the show to still go ahead. However Kaplan and Church-Woods said they were unable to come to an agreement with the venue, as they felt these would compromise the artistic freedom of the show. Instead, they claimed, they felt forced to find an alternative venue.
Derek Douglas, from Hill Street Theatre Venues, which held the contract between Saint Stephens and Terf, said “nobody is trying to censure anybody”, but the venue was asking for reassurances from the Terf team for legal reasons."

I'd have suggested JKR goes along to support a struggling new production.

If I was Joanne, I'd bagsy myself the middle seat of the front row and arrive armed with a bucket of popcorn, a notepad and a pen. I'd then scribble notes all the way through, even if it was next week's shopping list, just to make the director sweat.

I see there are the usual insinuations that GC people will come and protest, as well as making it "unsafe".

😂

It always reminds me of Victoria Wood talking about an outcry. Where people would look vaguely disapproving and tut.