Outcry over play based on killer Breivik’s manifesto

PLANS by a Danish theatre company to stage a play based on the manifesto of mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has drawn harsh criticism from MPs and a relative of one of his victims.

Director Christian Lollike, head of the small Cafe Teateret in Copenhagen, wants to use the Norwegian anti-Muslim extremist’s text to try to understand his mindset, as a means of avoiding a repeat of Breivik’s bomb-and-shooting rampage in July, which left 77 people dead.

Mr Lollike told the Politiken newspaper “it was a terrible tragedy” that “can happen again”.

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Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto called for a nationalist revolution to overthrow governments he claimed had let their countries down by allowing Muslim immigrants to settle in Europe.

Per Balch Soerensen, the father of one of the victims, said the play, Manifesto 2083, “is an acceptance of his [Breivik’s] acts”.

Danish MPs have condemned the planned performance but say they will not intervene, citing freedom of speech.

Flemming Moeller Mortensen, the ruling Social Democratic Party’s cultural affairs spokesman, said news of the play “has left some deep, deep scars, and we’re still shaken”. He ruled out political intervention, however, saying: “We have artistic liberty in this country.”

Pia Kjaersgaard, of the opposition Danish People’s Party, said the play was in “poor taste”.

Breivik’s trial starts in April.

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