Oxford University held a tribute to Roger Scruton, a conservative philosopher who, shortly before his death in 2020, was accused by a magazine of racism and anti-Semitism, costing him his job in a government agency. Although the magazine apologized for the article shortly after, the damage had already been done, since society had already done its job of condemning it without stopping to think about the consequences.
Thus Oxford held the event titled What Shakespeare can teach us about cancel cultureto which none other than Kevin Spaceywho was involved in a sexual abuse scandal in recent years, the entertainment industry turned its back on him, and after being found innocent, the actor seeks to regain a place in both theater and film and television.
“In a time of cancellation and defenestration we sometimes forget that we cannot continue like this and that we have been here before. “We know this because our greatest writers and artists have addressed this question in their own times,” declared the editor. Douglas Murrayone of those in charge of carrying out this event.
It was Murray himself who invited Spacey to participate in the event, but instead of having him read a speech, he asked him to recite part of the work as a monologue. Helm of Athens written by William Shakespeare. This work tells, precisely, the story of a man known for his vast fortune (Timón) and that little by little the people who adored him end up abandoning him.
“It’s about what happens when a society abandons a person for no reason. It’s something that’s been on Kevin’s mind, as it was on Roger Scruton’s, so I told him I wanted him to return to the UK stage.”Murray explained about wanting Kevin to play Timon in one of his most cathartic passages.
“If you were a unicorn, your pride and courage would confuse you, and you would be a victim of your own fury. You were a bear, and the horse would kill you. If you were a horse, the leopard would catch you. If you were a leopard, you would be related to the lion, and the indications of your kinship would be the arbiters of your life. Your only safety would be flight; your defense, be absent. What beast could you be that was not at the mercy of another beast? And what a beast are you at this moment, that you don’t see how much you would lose with such a transformation?” cries Timón in the play that Kevin Spacey performed for members of those attending the tribute to Roger Scruton.
Spacey finished his monologue with one of the most powerful phrases in the work: “I’m tired of this fake world and I won’t love it!”, leaving the room that immediately received him back with a standing ovation.
Ironically, Spacey’s performance comes just days after a London cinema refused to show his most recent film, Controlwhere the Oscar-winning actor plays a criminal who controls a car from a long distance.
““Both my staff and I are horrified that we are being mentioned in the same breath as his new movie for release.”declared Greg Lynn, director of the Prince Charles Cinema where the premiere of Control.
Given this, Kevin Spacey’s lawyer, Chase Scolnick, He considered the attitude taken by Lynn and her work team “disappointing.”
“Prince Charles Cinema’s decision to censor Kevin’s latest project is more than disappointing. “It rejects the legal process of two countries, ignores the overwhelming evidence of Kevin’s innocence, and disregards the hard work and sacrifice of dozens of impartial jurors who found Kevin 100 percent innocent.”
Source-www.infobae.com