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ARTICLE 5©
: Play (drama) in one act and 12 scenes, published as
a flip book (one side in English, the other in French,
under the same title. Assante wrote in French the
corpus of the text and translated it into English. Sable,
with Assante's consent, added some scenic modifications as
well as a few lines for some characters. G. Moustaki,
French singer and poet, generously gave some lyrics of a
song. In the published version, AnthropoMare
included the text of the Article 5 (United
Nations General Assembly, 1948), the reproduction
of two articles previously published in The Lancet
as well as recent excerpts from articles published in the LA
Times. ARTICLE 5 is
more than a « simple » theatre play ; it
is a real book, connected with the past and the present
death penalty situation in some US States and some other
countries. The question still remains : « are the
democratic countries which condone the death penalty –as
others non-democratic- respectful of the UN article 5
?»
PRESENTATION
:
Even if relationships are made with the executions in
various regions of the world, the main action is located
in the US. The focal point is the death penalty : who
is guilty, who may not be, who can afford a good lawyer,
who cannot, etc. ? In addition to those considerations,
another question arises: is the act of scientific, i.e.
medical, killing acceptable ? The play brings the
readers back to those times when the first evidence of the
belief in the power of science in killing people was
demonstrated. The cow elephant Topsy was electrocuted and
her killing was recorded on a black and white mute movie
to prove that electrocution was a painless way of killing
human beings. The play shows that we were wrong as we are
today with the IV injections. The question, years after
years of debate between the pros and the cons, still
remains : « is the killing of people respectful of
the UN article 5 ? Should the theatre be concerned
by the great debates of our times ?»
Read
an excerpt
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Mississauga,
AnthropoMare, 2006, 18.50$CDN;