Critic Harangues Author of ‘Ferguson’ Play After Performance

Monday night after the second performance of Ferguson, the play which reenacts the shooting of Michael Brown based on grand jury transcripts from the Ferguson, MO, case, a would-be critic gave his unvarnished opinion to the play’s author.

Standing in the lobby of the theater after the show, the agitated gentleman suggested that author Phelim McAleer was “presumptuous” to offer an opinion on the subject, apparently because McAleer is Irish.

Next, the man claimed McAleer had “cherry picked” lines from the transcripts and gave him a condescending pat on the back saying, “That’s okay for you to do.” In an attempt to engage on the substance, McAleer asked the man if he’d read the grand jury transcripts. His response was, “No, no, I haven’t.”

Tuesday afternoon, McAleer posted a video of the interaction on YouTube.

Ferguson is based on an approach to storytelling called verbatim theater. Verbatim theater uses exact testimony from public cases to create art. Ferguson is currently scheduled for two more shows, Tuesday and Wednesday night.