A NEW play includes clear messages that ‘it is never okay to hit a child’ and ‘bigotry is bad’ to ensure audiences are not offended.
Charlotte Phelps’ play F**king Things That F**k You Up centres on two troubled siblings who hold bigoted views and use offensive language, which idiots may feel is wholehearted endorsement of their behaviour.
To avoid confusion, the play includes an eight-minute monologue in which an actor breaks character to tell the audience the cast and crew know that ‘abuse is bad’, and ‘you shouldn’t use a slur unless you are a member of the demographic which that slur refers to’.
Phelps said: “In a way it’s good that audience members don’t want cruel or unjust things to happen. On the other hand, they are f**king idiots.”
However the message appeared to have bypassed some theatregoers, with one 20-year-old attendee leaving the theatre after just 10 minutes.
The audience member, who preferred not to give their name, said: ‘It was disgusting. One of the characters described her father hitting her. It’s never okay to hit someone.
“And another character used the P-word. I suppose we’re all meant to go around shouting vile racist abuse at Asian people now.”
Despite the care taken over the play’s message, its hip-hop musical numbers recorded by privately-educated Phelps herself on GarageBand, remain shit.
