When Raoul Moat went AWOL with a big gun and no-brain, Britain became transfixed. The news was too weird and too horrible to properly contemplate. Here, we had a man who had been so let down by the world that he decided to live like a feral creature in a drain, stroking weaponry and wanting to kill policemen.
Yet, somehow, mindless dolts held him up as some kind of anti-hero, provoking outrage at pointless (although admittedly tasteless) Facebook pages.
And what’s this? A play about Roaul Moat? Really?
Of course, you can see why there’s interest in such a thing. It’s obvious that we’re all a bit obsessed with death and the people who cause it. The TV is filled with murder mysteries and Shakespeare loved to kill-off half of his cast for shits and giggles.
However, this play is paid for by taxpayers which means we’ll all be treated to a nice bit of outrage.
Weirder still, is that the bloke who will play Moat has previously undertaken roles where he’s had to eat a corgi and a swan, catapulted grannies, set fire to himself outside Parliament and pranced like a ballerina pig outside Scotland Yard in pink tights.
Yep, this bloke likes to tackle the weird and he goes by the name of Mark McGowan. Moat isn’t the first controversial storyline he’s tackled.
In the past, he’s done the death of Jade Goody, Jean Charles de Menezes’ murder, the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews and the conception of Prince William.
We all want to know if Gazza is going to make a drunken cameo appearance to make us all initially laugh, then cry ourselves withered, unable to cope with the toppling depression that surrounds such a grim tale.
While this art-school titster runs around with a cardboard box on his head, with a crude print-out of Moat’s face stapled to the front, the victims aren’t too happy.
Concerned newspapers the country over have shown their compassion by ringing up everyone who has been affected by Moat’s grisly actions and dragged up painful memories for a quote about this play.
PC David Rathband, who was blinded by Moat, said:
“What a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Kelly Stobbart, whose sister Sam was injured, spat:
“We’ve been to hell and back. It should not be used as entertainment.”
Next Week: Someone sets up a mock-Twitter account for every single news story that is broken on the off chance that they go ‘viral’ and wind everyone up with it.
EssBen says
are they taking reservations yet? I’m hoping this will be up there with “Cannibal! The Musical” as one of the greats.
Marcus Aurelius says
I see the merit of challenging society’s assumptions through art but McGowan comes across as seeking attention and not particularly mindful of how he gets it. Will his “re-imagining” of Moat’s last hours refer at all to the injuries of PC Rathband?
More reminders of what Moat did (graphic image):
http://rulehibernia.com/2010/09/illegal-taser-gun-used-against-raoul-moat/