Playwright Cancels Madoff Production, Says Elie Wiesel Claimed Defamation
A playwright has canceled her upcoming production examining the morality of Bernard Madoff, saying her decision was based on a complaint by human rights activist Elie Wiesel.
The fictional play, Imagining Madoff, portrays the Ponzi schemer in his prison cell recalling an all-night discussion with Wiesel—an event that never happened, the Washington Post reports. Playwright Deb Margolin says she was “devastated” when Wiesel said his lawyer would stop the production, slated to premiere in August at Theater J in Washington, D.C.
According to Margolin, Wiesel claimed the play’s portrayal of him was “obscene” and “defamatory.” Wiesel had lost several million dollars to Madoff, while the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost its entire $15.2 million in assets, the Post says.
Margolin told the Post she used Wiesel as a character because “his name is synonymous with decency, morality, the struggle for human dignity and kindness, and in contrast to the most notorious financial criminal in the past 200 years.”
The Theater J Blog said Margolin had “written her heart out in this play” and stressed it was her decision to pull the production.
