A new musical stage show inspired by the atrocities carried out by Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik is to open in the U.K. this summer.
Such bad taste in a publicity stunt. They say Breivik won’t be mentioned by name in the musical and yet, they are telling audiences how the whole thing is inspired in the massacre and himself. They don’t need to name him specifically for everyone to know it references him.
I don’t think right wing violence is off limits for musicals. Moreover, it could, potentially, be a great medium to touch on these issues and gain a widespread audience. But I resent the specific trivialization of this massacre mostly because of the pretension of “not naming him”. Really? The authors are willing to use the atrocity but they will have us believe that all is solved by not mentioning Breivik? They want the proverbial marketing cake without being held accountable for trivializing a mass murder.
Last year I wrote about his young fans who idolize him as some sort of rock star. I dread to think what they will do now that there’ll be a musical made about him.
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