DAY OF LOT: Atlanta Theater Under Fire For Gay Versions of Bible Stories
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The Modern world madness continues...
What
if it really was Adam and Steve? That’s what the Out Front Theater
Company in Atlanta, which stages shows created only by people who are
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning, will set out to
answer for audiences during a three-week run of “The Most Fabulous Story
Ever Told,” starting April 27.
However, its decision to do so has provoked a torrent of criticism over the play, which has been called “blasphemous.”
The
work is an alternate version and comedic sendup of stories from the Old
Testament, presented through the eyes of a gay couple named Adam and
Steve and a lesbian couple named Jane and Mabel. It was written by Paul
Rudnick and premiered Off Broadway in 1998. The New York Times called
it, a “seriously silly theology treatise of a play.”
The
Out Front Theater decided it would do its own rendition of it about a
year ago. However, on March 27, emails, phone calls, letters and
Facebook messages blasting the decision started pouring in.
“We
had already been in rehearsals for several weeks and had auditions
before that,” Paul Conroy, the theater’s artistic director, said. “I
guess that’s just when someone found us and my best guess was that it
was a Monday, which means that people were at church on Sunday the day
before, and that’s when it picked up steam.”
The
main driver of the protest seems to be a conservative Catholic group
called America Needs Fatima, which circulated an online petition that
has garnered more than 40,000 signatures. The group has protested earlier productions of “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” along with other works it found objectionable, such as 2006’s movie adaptation of “The Da Vinci Code.”
This
petition reads: “I vehemently protest your showing the blasphemous play
‘The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,’ which, among other blasphemies,
refers to the Virgin Mary as a lesbian. Please cancel your showing of
it.” It also refers to the play as showing a “homosexual version of the
Old Testament.”
Mr. Conroy said there were no plans to cancel the show.
“I’m
going to let the show speak for itself,” Mr. Conroy said. “I don’t see
the benefit in responding because I don’t think they’re going to change
their minds no matter what I say or anyone else says. These people have
their minds made up even before it starts.”
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