Performative Virtue

Recent objections against actors pretending to be people they're not have been taken to a new level by a theatre audience in western Germany. An actor delivering a climactic monologue as a right-wing agitator was heckled, pelted and nearly assaulted by spectators who were apparently expecting something more anodyne from a play subtitled The Beauty of Killing Fascists. Doubtless those employing Nazi disruption tactics against what they presumably considered degenerate art were motivated by the best intentions, and will pass on their stage rage with alacrity when the polite young men from AfD arrive at their homes for a chat about what is only common sense.