BRIAN FERGUSON
'Anti-Islam' sex tourism book takes to the stage at Festival
A CONTROVERSIAL novel about sex tourism in Thailand which landed its author in court accused of stirring hatred against Muslims is to be turned into a new play for the Edinburgh International Festival.
Only giving the Abdullahs a little bite of their 72 virgins.
Catalan director Calixto Bieito, who is renowned for his X-rated productions, will work with novelist Michel Houellebecq to adapt his explosive book "Platform" for the stage.
The production is being billed as one of the highlights of this summer's Festival.
The novel caused uproar when it was published in 2001 and infuriated Muslim fundamentalists.
Platform tells the story of a French tourist who sets up a Thai travel agency specialising in sex tourism. In the book, the business meets the wrath of Islamic fundamentalists, who murder his girlfriend and more than 100 others in a terrorist attack on a leisure centre.
Sex tourists v Jihadis. Sounds like Tarantino. "Reservoir Camels."
The book features embittered diatribes against Muslims from the bereaved businessman character.
If Hamlet gets a soliloquay, why not Jacques Pervert?
The author, now said to live as a virtual recluse in Ireland, went on to be sued, unsuccessfully, in the French courts for inciting racial hatred. He was quoted in an interview at the time as describing Islam as "the most stupid of religions".
Muslims are smart enough to take advantage of our stupidity. Most of France's current leaders will eventually live as virtual recluses in Ireland. Actually, De Gaulle spent his last days there.
Sir Brian McMaster today hailed director Bieito - who has been dubbed the "the Spanish Quentin Tarantino" after featuring necrophilia and torture in previous Edinburgh shows including Hamlet, Il Trovatore and Celestina - and described "Platform" as a masterpiece...
