Edinburgh Evening News
Andrea Mullaney
Walk-out fury over Afghan war satire
5 August 2003

Angry Americans have been walking out of a fringe show that depicts US Marines taking drugs and killing orphans in Afghanistan.

The hard-hitting satire, Capital, is part of a double bill of plays collectively known as Bedtime for Bastards, by Australian writer Van Badham which are being performed at Adam House.

In an attack on the political spin doctor culture it shows two PR men trying to cover up fictional crack-fuelled rapes and murders which have apparently been filmed by Arab TV station Al-Jazeera.

The play has provoked several walkouts at early performances and the US Embassy has denied that the incident has any basis in fact. But the playwright, who wrote the show after a friend's death in the Septemberr 11 attacks, says it represents the dangers of the spin culture, similar to that played out before the death of the British arms inspector David Kelly.

Badham, whose play Kitchen received rave reviews at the Fringe last year, said she wrote the play in a "fit of fury" at the Australian government's backing of the invasion of Afghanistan.

"A friend I loved died on 9/11 but we were never given the chance to grieve for him because the spin doctors moved in and decided to use him and all those who died as a reason to go kill some 'towelheads'," said Badham.

"I tried to write something that went as over the top as I could imagine. But since then I have heard several stories that are almost as bad about the actions of the military in Afghanistan and Iraq."

She added: "There have been people walking out of the show, but if people get angry and disgusted, that's exactly where I think we should be.

"It's how we should feel about what has happened to Dr Kelly, about what governments have donein the Middle East.

"I see this as the greatest threat to Western democracy and the play is my attempt to take a stand."

Last year's fringe saw many shows based on 9/11, but Van Badham's Capital is perhaps the most controversial yet.

Press attaché Lee McClenny of the US Embassy said: "The play doesn't resemble my knowledge or experience of the facts. It's an artistic representation presented by someone with a point of view to get across. I haven't seen the play so I can't tell you my personal view but if people find it offensive or unhelpful, they shouldn't attend."

He added: "The US government and the US society has a profound commitment to freedom of speech. My government may not agree with what these actors or this play is saying but we would defend their right to say it."

The play has been given a staged reading in New York, where again some audience members walked out in protest.

While the other part of the Bedtime for Bastards double bill, Morning on a Rainy Day, is a relationship drama, C venues are also staging another of Van Badham's plays, Camarilla, about the effects of a terrorist bomb in London.