Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Real-Life Drama

Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal takes Elie Wiesel to task for shutting down Deb Margolin's play Imagining Madoff:
Why on earth did Mr. Wiesel, of all people, threaten to drop the big one on Ms. Margolin and Theater J? Not only is he prominent and admired, but he is also a celebrated human-rights advocate who has famously declared that "indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil." Yet he has proved himself utterly indifferent to the rights of a serious artist and a well-regarded theater company to make art as they see fit, merely because their art portrays him in a way he doesn't like. I wouldn't go so far as to call that hypocritical—not quite—but I have no doubt that it's unworthy of a great man who ought to know better.


For background on the case, the New York Times covered the story of Ms. Margolin's play and the controversy.

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