Help send ‘The Economist’ to Edinburgh

Remember when Tad Tietze, Guy Rundle and I edited that book ‘On Utoya’? Well, amongst other things, it inspired the critically acclaimed play ‘The Economist’ written by Tobias Manderson-Galvin and directed by Van Badham.

The people who produced the play, Australian based MKA Theatre of New Writing, in particular their less-than-flush-with-cash actors, need to get to Edinburgh as the play is set to be staged at the Edinburgh Festival. You can help make this possible by contributing to their crowd sourcing funding plans. Donations are tax deductible, and you will be assisting to bring a fantastic and political play to an international audience.

As I have stated on Facebook: I can promise my extreme gratitude, Tad’s public praise for your worthiness, and possibly a big kiss from GRundle on his next visit back home.

And a little about the play:

‘The Economist’ is a critically and popularly acclaimed, award nominated, and timely and confronting new work of theatre about the personal psychology and public portrayal of far-right Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Breivik. This is the story of Anders Breivik, but not told for his benefit, told instead for the horrifying, urgent and vital recognition it needs.

This ensemble production, written by Tobias Manderson-Galvin and directed by Van Badham, created a media storm when first produced in Melbourne in November 2011. Denounced in the right-wing press before the script had even been finished, the experimental Agit-Prop production sold out two extended seasons and received universal rave reviews, National Play Festival honours and award nominations.

On the morning of July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik detonated a bomb in Oslo, killing 8 people, using it as a diversion whilst he trapped and killed 69 people at a Labour Party Youth Camp on the island of Utoya. Most of his victims were teenagers. First blamed internationally on Islamic terrorists, when the press discovered that a blonde, blue-eyed entrepreneur had committed the crime, the attacker was depoliticised and relabelled as a ‘lone wolf’ and a ‘psycho’.

The Economist challenges the mythology of Breivik, using his own writings, police reports and other public statements amongst songs and staged fantasies to demonstrate how Breivik meticulously planned his attacks and articulated his political motivations.

The piece also explodes the symbols and tropes of the European far-right and the mainstream media that created Breivik’s narrow universe of discourse, and formed his belief that he was a brave warrior in a desperate cultural crusade.

The Economist fights the distorted reframing of Breivik by right-wing commentators while it reminds its audience that the horror in Oslo and Utoya was absolutely the political murder of 77 innocent people in a devastating terrorist assault.