Theatre
FROM the mouth of Lord Keith to the Glasgow Arts Centre actors' lab,
rape is on show. But I would rather have watched their Lordships debate
the illegalities of domestic rape, than watch this play by playwright
William Mastrosimone.
A rapist attacks Marjorie in her home. She sprays insecticide into his
eyes, ties him up, and bundles him into the empty fireplace. Her
flatmates arrive. Both are women and both express horror not at
Marjorie's grief, but at her tactical defence. The rapist wins the
sympathy of one who tries to feed, nurse, and free him from the
fireplace, the other doesn't understand why Marjorie has been moved to
violence. ''There's a man in here, he's tied up, he's injured'' a
character laments ''what does this mean?'' Beats the hell out of me.
Could it be that Marj has a penchant for bondage? or that perhaps she
wants revenge?
Psychological thriller this is not. Moved by the sight of the blooded
intruder Marjorie's flatmates refuse to believe her story. Only when she
threatens to cut off the rapist's delicate vegetables does he confess
and finally win the contempt of the girlies. Rape is not an
entertainment. It must be woven into the moral fabric of a script if
used at all, and then hammered. This is not the best dramatic treatment
of rape ever seen. Intelligent people may find it rather draining.
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