Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in the theatre

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Pedophilia, ephebophilia, romantic or sexual relations between adults and children, and child sexual abuse have been important themes of a number of works written for the stage.

Contents 1 Plays 1.1 Men and boys 1.2 Men and girls 1.3 Women and girls 2 Musicals 3 Opera 4 See also

[edit] Plays

[edit] Men and boys

Plays with a child sexual abuse/pedophile theme (man & boy) or content include:

• Afterbirth by Dave Florez
• The Child-Killer: Portrait of a Paedophile
• Closure, a one-act play by Luis Garcia

The journey to redemption from a childhood of child sexual abuse, now a 2007 film

• Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill
• Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley
• ecstasy + GRACE by James Martin Charlton
• The Fastest Clock In The Universe by Philip Ridley

Coming up to his thirtieth birthday, Cougar Glass sets out to seduce 16-year-old schoolboy Foxtrot Darling.

• The Lying Kind, by Anthony Neilson
• The Sugar Syndrome, by Lucy Prebble
• La Ville dont le Prince est un Enfant, The Fire that Burns by Henry de Montherlant
• A Bird of Prey, by Jim Grimsley

A boy discovers that his best friend is a recruiter for a child pornography ring.

In Ancient Greece, where pederastic and pedophilic relationships were viewed very differently than today, many works touched on the relationships of men with boys. Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles wrote plays on the subject and the poets Alcaeus, Anacreon, Ibycus, Pindar, Solon, Sappho and Theognis of Megara all composed poetry praising the love of boys.

[edit] Men and girls

Plays with a child sexual abuse/pedophile theme (man & girl) or content include:

• The Acharnians by Aristophanes
• Alice, a play for television, by Dennis Potter, based on the life of Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll
• Frozen, by Bryony Lavery
• How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel
• Lolita by Edward Albee adapted from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Masks and Mirrors, written and performed by Roberta Nobleman
• Motortown, by Simon Stephens
• Nymphs & Shepherds (A Paedophile's Life), by David Mines
• Short Eyes, by Miguel Piñero

[edit] Women and girls

Plays with a child sexual abuse/pedophile theme (woman & girl) or content include:

• The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler: the early version of the monologue entitled "The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could"
• Aunt Dan and Lemon by Wallace Shawn

[edit] Musicals

• The Color Purple produced by Oprah Winfrey based on The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Love Jerry by Megan Gogerty
• Lolita My Love by Alan Jay Lerner, adapted from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Tommy, stage version of the rock opera by The Who

Uncle Ernie abuses Tommy in bed "Down with the bedclothes, up with the night shirt. Fiddle about. Fiddle about."

[edit] Opera

• Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten, based on Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
• The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

[edit] See also

• Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in fiction
• Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in films
• Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in songs