It has inspired violent protests from Norway to Rome \u2013 and now it\u2019s hitting the UK. Playwright Tiago Rodrigues explains why the far-right speech at the drama\u2019s climax has proved so incendiary<\/p>\n
In February, turbulent scenes inside a German theatre made headlines<\/a> around the globe. During the final act of a play at Schauspielhaus theatre in Bochum, the audience first jeered and whistled at a performer in the role of a far-right politician. An orange lobbed from the auditorium narrowly missed its target; eventually, two spectators climbed on to the stage and tried to wrestle the actor off. News of the incident travelled around the world: it seemed a bizarre throwback to a world in which people were not able to tell the difference between art and real life, like 19th-century Parisians stampeding out of a cinema after watching a train hurtle towards the camera.<\/p>\n For the man who wrote the play, however, it was nothing unusual. \u201cI was not surprised by the reaction,\u201d says Portuguese playwright Tiago Rodrigues. \u201cI was surprised by the fact that it was so surprising for so many people.\u201d He describes the audience\u2019s reaction to his play Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists as \u201cvery intense\u201d, but also \u201ctypical\u201d.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/0f599d97f914aa9d0430d61d660ded48cc8dee62\/380_57_1131_905\/master\/1131.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0aa907ff6e5fcb788f34fa8ef48187ab\" "\\"Jeers,")
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