The Blyth Festival is facing some backlash on an upcoming play about serial killer nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer.
'In the Wake of Wettlaufer' follows a fictional family who put their father into a long-term care home, only to find out it’s the same one that Wettlaufer committed multiple murders in.
One of the daughter’s of Wettlaufer’s actual victims, Susan Horvath, wants the play shut down.
In a YouTube video posted on Friday, she calls the play in “poor taste” and “insensitive.” She says she plans to picket opening night in August.
The Blyth Festival’s artistic director, and co-writer of the Wettlaufer play, says the play is trying to shine a light on the huge problem facing upcoming generations - what to do with their elderly parents and the issues facing the system designed to care for them.
Gil Garratt says many family members of Wettlaufer’s victims approve of the play.
Daniel Silcox is the son of James Silcox, Wettlaufer’s first victim.
He says he fully supports the play, “'In the Wake of Wettlaufer' will illustrate the anxieties and concerns that families experience in the midst of selecting long-term care for their elderly loved ones.”
The play is set to take the stage on Aug. 9.
