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Madison's mayor tells News 3
he has no intention of stopping a controversial play that features Jesus
Christ as a gay man.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's
office is receiving thousands of postcards from across the country via a
mass mailing campaign coordinated by a Pennsylvania-based religious group.
Supporters want Cieslewicz to keep the curtain from rising on "Corpus
Christi," a play scheduled to open at the Bartell Theatre this March.
"Free speech sometimes is offensive, and that's the way it is," Cieslewicz
said. "In the end, it's better for democracy, that we allow free speech
even when it is offensive, rather than shut it down. So, even if I could
take any action I wouldn't."
A spokesman for the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family
and Property says protests are also scheduled as his group tries to stop
the play.
The play, written by Terrence McNally in 1997, has been performed across
the country, stirring up controversy all along the way.
The story line is a modern-day retelling of the story of Jesus' birth,
ministry, and death in which both he and his disciples are homosexuals.
The play was initially cancelled because of death threats against the
board members of the Manhattan Theatre Club, which was to produce the
play. When the play opened there, 2000 protesters were on hand. When
Corpus Christi opened in London, a British Muslim group called the
Defenders of the Messenger Jesus even went so far as to issue a Fatwa or
death sentence on McNally, according to Imagi-nation.com.
For ticket information, call (608) 294-0740.
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