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Brett Kahr’s musical Rue Magique is set for a run at the King’s Head Theatre |
Shrink makes a song and dance about prostitution
Psychotherapist’s gritty musical tells story of teenager forced into selling sex by her mother
THE hard-hitting story of a prostitute who coerces her 13-year-old daughter into her illicit world might not sound like musical material.
But one of the UK’s top psychotherapists, whose play Rue Magique premieres at the King’s Head Theatre next week, would disagree.
Brett Kahr has used real-life testimonies of patients as the inspiration for the Upper Street show. HRH Prince Charles saw an early draft of the adult-themed tale, which paints a gritty picture of child abuse in England today, when he visited a south London charity Mr Kahr was involved with in 1999.
But Mr Kahr, a marital relations specialist who moonlights as a theatrical composer, insists the message of the musical is an uplifting one.
“Some of the most vicious forms of child abuse take place within the home, and are perpetrated often not by the father or the uncle, but by the mother,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that it happens in Great Britain but it does.”
He added: “My first reaction was I couldn’t think of a less suitable subject for a piece of theatre. But theatre can’t be safe, it can’t be easy. The arts have always been one of the most powerful vehicles for social change.
“We are telling essentially a family story.
“Although it’s a heartbreaking story, it’s also a heart-warming story.”
The doctor, who is married to opera singer Kim Chriswell, also believes psychology and music are “kindred spirits” that both approach the world through the ear, rather than the eye.
Les Misérables star Melanie LaBarrie plays the mother, Desdemona, in a world far removed from the café-lined streets of Upper Street, but it’s not an exclusive show.
“We’d like the comfortable Islingtonians to come, but we’d also like people who are living more on the knife-edge,” said Mr Kahr.
Rue Magique is at the King’s Head Theatre from October 29-December 7. |
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