Scores of actresses turn down roles in play critical of JK Rowling’s gender views.

[lechiffre55]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/13/scores-actresses-turn-down-roles-play-critical-jk-rowling

"The stage production, which is set to debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, has already caused outrage over a working title which labelled the gender-critical Harry Potter author a c----."

"The production is yet to cast any of the female roles, including that of Rowling herself."

"Actors have been found for male leads, who will portray Harry Potter cast members Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe."

Ah yes. I too have been a thespian for many years and this production is possibly the best theatre, in the truest sense, that I have ever seen. I suspect any school adaptation would focus more on the personal stories than the effects?

I should imagine that it's three brave youngsters standing up for the most marginalised and oppressed by patiently enlightening a transphobic dinosaur as to why the special glitter folx just want to live their authentic lives, and the terrible harm/actual genocide that she's perpetuating. She will wriggle and twist to try and justify her terrible views but they will tenaciously persist.

At the end she will either see the light and fall sobbing at their sainted feet, begging for absolution while draping herself in the Progress flag, or she will be unrepentant and the final scene will show her as a lonely, bitter and twisted outcast living in poverty after everyone has boycotted her books, as a cautionary tale as to what happens to those who do not renounce TERFdom.

I wonder how many of the actresses were on the fence about the issue before being sent the script, and were actually peaked by the raging misogyny therein.

Those who've suggested a trans cast in a hilariously shit play about trans issues have been beaten to it by Get Off My Turf, starring Owl and Fox, which you can laugh at on YouTube for 10 mins.

Do you have a link, please?

But is a Youtube production as valid an experience as a live performance with an audience in a theatre space? Is it, y'know, as legitimate?

Is anyone else imagining "queer-identifying Hollywood scriptwriter Joshua Kaplan" stamping his feet in a total hissy fit whilst screaming "WHO LEAKED MY SCRIPT TO THESE PHILISTINES!?!" ?

Or is it just me?

Exactly this!

Im sure at one point they all circle her shouting ‘Terf! Terf! Terf!’ possibly with a smoke bomb, to show to the audience how wonderfully kind and tolerant their views are.

Think women are people that deserve respect? Keep out of women's spaces?

I'm sure at one point they all circle her shouting ‘Terf! Terf! Terf!’

I'm sensing a strong parallel between this and the courtroom scenes in The Crucible, where the girls all chant at Mary Warren.

Surely witches TERFs should be burnt at the stake?

I believe that's the encore. Bring your own marshmallows.

It's not as if they don't have a history of that in Scotland.

They had a king who wrote a book about it and everything.

Looking at this new judgement about Steve Coogan’s portrayal of a real-life person in a film, I wonder if the play script might be considered defamatory:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/14/steve-coogan-the-lost-king-defamation-claim

Come, come. We all know that only some people are deserving of things like rights. We TERFs have relinquished those by holding our terrible views, and are fully deserving of everything we get.

The play is so shittily done that I can see them doing that and setting off the fire alarms

I'm imagining moments where the actor tries to encourage audience participation that just turn awkward, in an "amirite folks??" then silence kind of way.

Are scores of actresses turning the roles down because the producers aren't confirming that the roles will be paid?

Or is the script that terrible?

The article seemed to suggest they'd be paid in line with industry standards (i.e. crap pay) but I suspect no-one wants to burn the "Career-Changing Role In The Upcoming HP TV Series" bridge. Or they've sensed that times are a-changin' and don't want their name associated with this theatrical binfire in perpetuity.

I googled "TERF Edinburgh casting call" and got a variety of results, not all of them with the same casting requests - possibly because they updated the call after filling the male roles, but at least one of them was looking for a trans person for a non-Jo-or-Emma role, so I have no idea. Anyway, it is definitely paying work. The job starts 8 July - which I assume is the start of rehearsals - so it's six weeks at £500 or so a week. I don't know how good that is for an acting gig, though the cost of Fringe accommodation will probably leave nowt but a few coppers remaining at the end of the run.

The theatre has 300 seats. That's going to be tough to fill. I saw the actual Ian McKellen there when he did that ballet version of Hamlet, and obviously every performance of that was sold out. How many people will be willing to spend £15 a ticket to see TERF?

The money for those roles is never great, plus it sounds like there's no living/accommodation allowance, as some companies will give. Edinburgh's expensive at the best of times so anyone playing there needs to either know someone who lives there who can put them up or have plenty of money to pay for a room. I know someone who has performed there since the 1990s and, for smaller shows, it's always a big gamble whether you even break even. Risky business. Can't wait to see what happens.

Yes, i was thinking that too.

Ooh that's interesting re The Lost King - in the light of Baby Reindeer.

I think the growth of fictionalised biopics and the exploitation of real life material for fiction films is going to challenge the libel and defamation courts for many years to come. I'm astonished at the naivety of Pathe who have done many biopics and true stories (Iron Lady, Philomena, Pride) - I would have thought their lawyers would be all over it.

Agree. I think you're on a sticky wicket making drama based on real people unless you're showing them in a broadly positive light. I'd say it's particularly foolish to make a drama about one of the richest people in the country, who has successfully used her lawyers to elicit apologies from people who have defamed her. (I think JKR is generally gracious enough not to ask for damages, though I personally wouldn't want to take the risk.)

It's possible actresses are turning the parts down because the script is rubbish, or because they don't want to sabotage their chances of a role in the new Harry Potter (though as a PP said, I doubt that a short-run play on the Edinburgh fringe is fishing in the same casting pool as Warner Bros). But it might also be because they have enough sense of decency and integrity to recognise a hit job when they see one, and to want no part of it.