New York

Edward Snowden to Join Daniel Radcliffe on Stage for ‘Privacy' Play

The fugitive will make a cameo via pre-recorded video in "Privacy"

Edward Snowden will appear in a new play at the Public Theater in New York, beginning this weekend, via video from Moscow, Russia, The New York Times reported. The fugitive will make a cameo in a pre-recorded video each night to exchange ideas about privacy and lines from "The Tempest" with actor Daniel Radcliffe, who plays a writer in the show. 

"Privacy," a British play that explores how the digital age has made public what was once personal, was conceived before Snowden leaked government documents. However, his actions have greatly influenced the play, which was rewritten with an American context, according to the Times. 

The play is set as a work of documentary theater, with actors reciting dialogue taken from interviews the play's creators, James Graham and Josie Rourke, conducted with politicians, scholars and journalists. Rourke and Graham were unable to reach Snowden before the play's 2014 run in London, but after later getting in touch the two revised the script to put together the one-minute exchange between Snowden and Radcliffe for the American production, the Times reported.

“[Snowden] is hoping that the playwrights and actors here can take abstract concepts and make them more concrete for people who might not read N.S.A. documents at their computers," Ben Wizner, Snowden's lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Times.

Snowden has recently used digital technology to make other public appearances in the U.S. from Russia. Earlier this year, he appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival where he wheeled himself on stage via a wheeled robot some have dubbed the "Snowbot."

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