Protesters to picket 'Lolita'

Women Against Pornography (WAP), a private antipornography group located near Times Square, has announced that it will begin picketing the Broadway production of Edward Albee's "Lolita," charging that the play "reverses the real child sexual abuse scenario, blaming the victim, while it exonerates the victimizer" and that it "makes sexual molestation a campy in-joke, played to gales of laughter and applause." WAP cofounder Dorchen Leinholdt called for a widespread public boycott, writes Monitor correspondent Christopher Swan.

The protest was joined by anti-child abuse authors Cathryn Brady and Florence Rush, as well as representatives from a coalition of institutions including Actors Equity, the National Association of Social Workers, New York Women Against Rape, and two local hospitals that treat child-abuse victims.

The adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel opened in Boston recently to mixed reviews and record audiences. The broadway ope ning is set for March 14.