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

Does anyone know when it's due to start?

Thursday, 1st August, 11.40 (Preview), then Friday, 2nd August, 11.40.

Tickets available, £9 full price for preview, then £15 full price, concs. £10 thereafter as far as I can be bothered to check (a few days).

I suspect they're going to find that there's an initial flurry (mostly journalists, because it's JKR and they're hoping to run a decent story from the Gender Wars angle) followed by being rather underwhelming. Maybe the move to a bigger venue was a rather misplaced belief that newspaper headlines = bums on seats and the whole "We didn't feel safe" was just more publicity.

The young Edinburgh crowd meanwhile will be off watching...Nish Kumar

I would rather watch my own feet being gnawed off by alligators than that pompously smug twat.

I post in HP fandom spaces (where everyone is anti-JKR, natch) and they've just discovered and posted about this play.

Although every statement came with the obligatory "fuck JKR" at the beginning, they are horrified at the thought of the play. They think it's disgusting to psychoanalyse her past relationships with men - especially her abusive ex husband, it does nothing to help transwomen and - worst of all - it is written by a "cis"man (being gay just isn't good enough and the writer might be about to find that out).

So he doesn't seem to be able to please anyone. I'm not sure who his audience is going to be then.

I don't think it is likely to be terribly successful. I agree there will be an initial flurry of interest, but it is on for a long run and and that is a lot of seats to fill. Many Edinburgh Fringe shows do not break even.

If there isn't much coming in from ticket sales, I wonder where the money will come from to pay the actors (I recall good rates being mentioned) and the venue.

Perhaps we'll hear of a crowdfunder being launched.

Not forgetting the C word in the title for an extra frisson of naughtiness

Quite possibly the whole show has been funded from the start by a bid or grant of some kind, that means ticket sale income would be nice but not needed. The written bid would have ticked all kinds of exciting boxes.

The Spectator Channel on YouTube has uploaded a video with Julie Bindel and Josh Kaplan talking about the play.

Julie is blistering in her attack on the use of the word TERF and a man meddling in feminist issues that he appears to have little depth of understanding.

Josh dies a lot of squirming and resorts to saying just come and see the play. I think he may well think is it's balanced. I expect that everything Julie stated will still hold once the play opens.

Here's a link

I think Julie nearly made him cry 😃. It's easy to win an argument when you're writing both sides of it. Reality isn't so accommodating.

I think he's trollesque, provocative titles seems to be his thing. Though he may have bottled the Jewish Nazi...bundles of kindling (😔 thankfully). It's fair to say not to judge the play before seeing it. Although as he talks of the 'perceived conflicts' between women's and tran's rights, if he can't actually see the actual conflict, I don't hold out much hope.

Julie gave him an education. Maybe, when the interview was over, he'll make some rewrites.

He didn't impress me.

He struck me as someone who thinks of himself as inclusive and accepting/ on the right side of history without having spent any time thinking why left wing liberals who he typically agrees with diverge on this issue.

He came across as one of the many who lazily dismiss those defending women's rights as 'anti trans' without engaging in substantive points of difference.

Julie made this suggestion several times and all he said was 'watch the play'.

I expect he did the show as he thought it would help ticket sales. Maybe he thought by not talking about the issues arising, people would seek the answers in the play. I doubt this is the case. He just came across as out of his depth and ill informed. I don't think many people watching would think he has a good grasp of the issues and therefore, the play is likely to be shallow.

Thanks for the link, @IcakethereforeIam , just watched this.

I have rarely seen anyone look as uncomfortable and nervous in an interview as Josh (he tries to keep a grin on his face throughout but it fools nobody) or heard a supposedly creative person express himself so unclearly and with so much hesitation. At one stage he says he doesn’t wish to answer a point that Julie puts to him. Julie on the other hand is very articulate and speaks fluently and with conviction. I love the contrast between her serious, at times stony, expression, and his rictus grin. I noted the one moment when he touches his hair - at a point when he’s at his most uncomfortable. He also looks away from the camera. His body language says so much.

I was surprised that a playwright who claims to have spent a lot of time in Britain claims not to understand the weight that the words TERF and c* carry here: in fact he shows precisely the kind of smug imperialist arrogance that he would no doubt not dream of showing had he been writing a play for, for example, an Indian audience in India about a subject that had caused controversy amongst Indian people. He is either not very observant of British people and British culture or he is being disingenuous when he claims not to have realised how polarising these two words are - especially when they form the title of his play.

More to say but to sum up:
Julie - 1: Josh - 0

And I wouldn’t waste my money on what’s clearly a very poorly researched play.

(edited for grammar 😬)

I was surprised that a playwright who claims to have spent a lot of time in Britain claims not to understand the weight that the words TERF and c carry here:*

Depends where in Britian - maybe he chose the title after getting pished in Glasgow.😂

What struck me was on the one hand Josh saying people should see the play first before assuming they knew what it would say, and on the other feeling entirely entitled to write a play about what people who hold ceratin opinions would say without first speaking to anyone who actually holds those opinions.

I don’t think Josh would know where Glasgow is let alone go there and get pished with the locals…

True but I'm having a Kevin Bridges moment - Josh is only 40 miles from the city where "cunt" means "old chap" and if a stranger calls you "pal" you're probably in trouble.

"Who are you calling TERF, pal?"

I read an award-winning play where there was a scene in which a woman walked into a cafe, undid her coat and announced she was 8 months pregnant. With twins.

The lack of knowledge by the male playwright was quite incredible.

With all the words a playwright has at their disposal, he can't really describe his reasoning behind the term TERF. I'm assuming it's meant to be ironic. But he doesn't say so. Just talks round it, endlessly

If he's not on social media, I doubt very much if he's going to understand the powerplay here. He, as Bindel points out, already plants JKR firmly in the role of mummy. As she says, would he plant a billionaire male author in the role of daddy?

He strikes me as a fairly uninformed man, who thinks he's cleverly imagining the byplay between kids calling their mum an old-fashioned bigot, and a world-class author who maybe has a reason to say what she says, but it's only because of her past experience with men, and nothing to do with feminism as a movement.

It's going to be a trite bit of comedy, capitalising on the mother/teenager dynamic, with zero insight into the actual issues.

That's my prediction.

I couldn't watch more than a short clip, he's too obnoxious.

It's the Izzard described finest of lines between 'looking cool and groovy' and 'looking like a twit'.

Some of the shows that get the most enthusiastic reviews from excited reviewers of edgy stuff leave you thinking.... was that intentional? Is this an intelligently dry mockery of whatever that I'm just not bright enough to really get? Or is it actually exactly what it looks like, which is a writer who has absolutely no clue and is making random shit up while thinking they're being cool?

I feel like that when I see all the five star reviews and fawning over Travis Alabanza's Burgerz. When Sarah Stuart wrote this hilarious take:

the-lies-they-tell.org/2020/09/29/review-of-burgers-by-travis-havaburger-nov-2018/

Getting, what I think is going to be portrayed as young kids, maybe teenagers, staging an intervention with their hopelessly bigoted old mother, as a comedic discourse on the controversy of trans ideology, will in my considered opinion, come out as 'looking like a twit'.

I’m guessing she wasn’t wearing an enormous cape.

I would put money on your final question being the case.

Thanks for the link @IcakethereforeIam I'm watching in little bursts when I need a break from marking. The first few minutes have been as amusing as a play.

He's quite the character. Not only has he never been to Glasgow, he's never been on social media either. Well, not Twitter anyway. But despite that he knows that there's a "confluence" between trans rights and women's rights and only a "perceived conflict" between them. And if scads of women got slung off social media for arguing the exact opposite, well Josh wasn't there to see.

I wasn't sure at first but once she gets into her stride it gets serious and Julie Bindel really does take him apart.

Based on this interview I predict Josh's next project will be an edgy satirical biography of Martin Luther King called "Uppity N*" to be premiered in MLK's hometown in Atlanta Georgia. Good luck Josh.