‘TERF’ the Play Cannot Out-Satire J.K. Rowling’s Online Fights
Of all of the times to attempt to make sense of J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric by humanizing her, the new stage play TERF (Assembly Rooms Ballroom, Edinburgh, through Aug. 25) has debuted at both the most opportune and unfortunate one.
Premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe, mere blocks from the cafe where Rowling infamously finished writing the first of her “Harry Potter” books, the play by Tokyo Vice and Designated Survivor script coordinator Joshua Kaplan has taken advantage of the location for maximum publicity leading up to last weekend’s curtain raising.
And yet the satire of Kaplan’s stagecraft has been upstaged by Rowling’s real-life online meltdown during the Summer Olympics over the medal-winning run by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who fights for the woman’s welterweight gold in Paris on Friday.