  Category:  Culture & nbsp;  In what appears to be Britain's answer to the rash of left- wing political documentaries that has broken out here in America,  the urlLink LA Times reports on " a powerful trend in Britain —  today's news and political debates being taken directly to the stage.
 The newest offering is "  urlLink Guantanamo:  Honor Bound to Defend Freedom ,  a London play whose dialogue is drawn directly from interviews,  speeches and letters of family members of detainees,  freed prisoners,  government officials and others.
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The play,  as you might expect,  is garnering rave reviews:  urlLink The Independent calls it " an eloquent indictment of the suspect political practices and mentality that have led to the creation what Lord Justice Steyn (
whose Mann Lecture opens the proceedings)  has called 'the legal black hole. '"
 & nbsp;
 I hate this kind of stuff.  It bothers me that it's even made and it bothers me even more that people flock to it and&
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tell each other&
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they're&
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witnessing art.  The Independent review mentions the play is cobbled together from spoken testimonies,  which means,  really,  that none of it is written.  None of it is created.  It's basically just a montage of political statements put on stage to give it the illusion of theater.
 But that's not right either because plays like this want it both ways- they claim the illusion of&
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theater to be considered art,  but claim they're&
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not theater ( as&
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in,  based on real spoken testimony)
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to be considered politically serious.
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 I can tell,  just from urlLink this ( exceedingly boring)  exerpt,  that&
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I would hate this play even though I also hate&
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what's happening at Guantanamo and probably agree with the play's political point of view.  The fact is America- bashing&
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for the sake of America- bashing is no&
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less annoying&
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when the criticism is warranted than when it's not.
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 The fact is,  despite popular charicatures to the contrary,  the rash of liberal documentaries which have hit theatres recently are really made by people who like America and understand what's good about it and think it's worth rescuing.
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When you start with the premise ( as the British do)  that America was basically a bad idea to begin with,
 and is peopled with primitives and yahoos,  the critique becomes more of a harangue.  And elements of imperial condescension kind of pervade the whole thing.
 & nbsp;
 In addition,  the easiness with which America- bashing " art"  gains not only acceptance but rave reviews from the British press ( Did anyone see that musical,
 "
The Madness of King George,  which somehow was perceived as funny by British people?
 makes it unliklely such art is also going to be depthful or complicated or anything approaching artistically interesting.  It doesn't have to be.  It just has to hit the right buttons and repeat in various ways the idea that Americans are stupid and bullheaded -  the underlying implication is that breaking away from British rule&
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was a mistake for which we're still paying.
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 Coming soon to Picadilly Circus:
 "
The 9/ 11 Commission:  In Three Parts"
