It is a very modern phenomenon that “reality TV”,or in this case the real-life drama of a televised trial,has replaced the great artistic expositions on human frailty executed by playwrights such as Albee. It is also a modern phenomenon that without the distance of fictionalisation,we end up incapable of exploring the roiling turmoil of humanity. Indeed,rather than using art as a means to examine our flaws,we now modify,cancel or otherwise wreak vengeance on it for attitudes we no longer want to own up to.
This is crippling society’s capacity to deal with reality. Because even a play written more than half a century ago provides a profound insight into modernity. When the character George ends act two of Albee’s most famous work by reading the line from a history book about “morality too rigid to accommodate itself”,he is simultaneously telling the audience something about the complexity of his destructive and co-dependent marital relationship with Martha,and about an absolutism which threatens to destroy society.
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Despite the sense that the public nature of the Heard-Depp trial has given us some special insight into their marriage,the truth is,we know next to nothing for sure about the noxious dynamics which swirled between the participants,other than the picture they choose to paint of it now that it is over. Instead,voyeuristic interpretations are chiefly informed by personal prejudices,fears and experiences.
The public reaction has been polarised to the point of absurdity. Amber Heard has been the subject of sustained and vicious abuse on the internet. As a result,victims of domestic violence have expressed concerns that the finding against Heard will cause women to hesitate before coming forward,fearing that they will risk being treated in the same way.
Their fears are justified. The attacks on Heard will have made it harder for women,especially women involved with high-profile men,to come forward to report domestic abuse.