July 22, 2016

Daniel Solove @DanielSolove As a Character In a Play About Privacy

Is this a first? A real life law prof is a character in a theatrical production. We've had Supreme Court Justices in opera (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia in Derrick Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg). And we've see real law profs depicted in films and tv movies: Alan Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune and various OJ docudramas (and Gerald Uelman of Santa Clara School of Law as well).

But now George Washington Law Faculty member Daniel Solove is a character in Privacy, curently in a run at the Public Theater through August 14th. The work, written by James Graham, and starring Daniel Radcliffe, is an update of Mr. Graham's 2014 play and featuring topical references, focusing on the issues of privacy in a world increasingly concerned about the line between public and personal personas. Other real life characters in the play include Sherry Turkle, well known social science and media tech prof at MIT.  The reviewer makes comparisons with the world of magic performance, which is interesting as well. He notes that a desire to honor the star's request for secrecy about the play's twists and turns keeps him from revealing much about its specifics, although let's face it: there's a difference between secrecy and privacy. But let's go with the desire to limit exposure, if only to keep the fun going. Shades of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap.

More here from the GW Law website,  here from the New York Times.

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