Cancel culture is a phrase you've likely heard a lot during the past few years.
Now, the subject is explored in a new play at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota.
At first glance, it would seem like the main character would embrace an open worldview. She is, after all, a Jewish woman with a Hispanic wife and a Black foster son. And yet,` Lauren Fein is also prone to making comments that some may view as insensitive, or worse, racist.
In a fiercely divided society, the show by playwright and Miami-based lawyer Christopher Demos-Brown couldn’t be timelier.
He says he hopes, the show, "The Cancellation of Lauren Fein," makes people consider different points of view.
"Most theater that's meant to comment on American life is preaching to the theater choir and by that, I mean, most theater audiences skew liberal and most plays tell that audience exactly what they already believe and think."
Demos-Brown said the play was inspired by his real-life cases defending professors against accusations of bigotry.
"Most of the cases of this type I've dealt with suffer from a tremendous lack of due process, up to and including firing because of things they've said or because of their efforts to teach complicated material and, in most cases, saying things that are true, though difficult to discuss."
The playwright said he set out to write a show that didn't offer easy solutions.
"I have to say, it takes a lot of guts for theaters to do plays that they know are going to challenge their audiences so people should really be thankful that Florida Studio Theatre is willing to do that,” he said.
Demos-Brown has written over a dozen full-length plays and screenplays.
His show, "American Son," had a successful run on Broadway and was later adapted into a Netflix film.
"The Cancellation of Lauren Fein" is part thriller, part courtroom drama, and it’s the audience that's left to decide if Fein should be canceled...or not.
"The Cancellation of Lauren Fein" runs through March 15 at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota.
