Censorship in the theatre!

[Scarlett]

Does anyone know of any examples of theatre productions being censored? e.g- I know that Hair was risquee and involved nudity, but was it actually censored?

 

Many thanks!

[bagboy]

It opened  in London in 1968 one day after theatre censorship was abolished.

[Scarlett]

Wow- really? Censorship in the theatre, you mean?

[maxi29]

Yes, Scarlett, theatre before 1968 was under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain who could ask for offending words to be removed or could ban plays entirely. The bans were often circumvented by mounting plays in 'private' theatres where one became a member for the day..It seems crazy now but that was a fact of life before the abolishment of censorship.

[jno]

Politics, Prudery and Perversions: The Censoring of the English Stage, 1901-1968 by Nicholas de Jongh tells some of the story, though stage censorship goes back to Shakespeare and beyond. Films are still censored.

[LordyGeordie]

it wasn't actually censorship as such in that no ruling body said you can't show it. However, it was a form of self-censorship when that Birmingham theatre recently said it would no longer show that controversial play (I can't remember the name, but it was about violence in a Sikh household) because of the huge amount of protests it caused.

If a mob forces a play to be removed could that be considered censorship? Discuss!

[Peter Pedant]

Censorship by the Lord Chamberlain was re-established after the (Beggar's opera- colloquially known quite gratuitously as the b*ggers opera

because the then prime minister (the first and of course he was not known as prime minister for another 150 years) Sir Robert Walpole was protrayed on the stage and satirized.

DId this mean that box office receipts went up? It sure did. The Beggars opera was produced by Rich and Gay.

And the wags (remember this was around 1720) went around saying it made Mr Gay rich, and Mr Rich, gay.

Gay is obviously being used in the C18 sense