I-Xvi.Banned Plays FM (FOF)

BANNED PLAYS banned plays CENSORSHIP HISTORIES OF 125 Stage Dramas DAWN B. SOVA Banned Plays Copyright © 2004 by Dawn B. Sova All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sova, Dawn B. Banned Plays : censorship histories of 125 stage dramas / Dawn B. Sova p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-4018-4 1. Theater—Censorship—History. 2. Drama—Censorship—History. I. Title. PN2042.S68 2003 792′.09—dc22 2003063113 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Cathy Rincon Cover design by Catherine Lau Hunt Printed in the United States of America MP Hermitage 10 987654321 This book is printed on acid-free paper. This Book Is Dedicated to the Memory of a Man Who Always Refused to Allow Himself to Be Censored, My Father, Emil J. Sova CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi List of Entries xv BANNED PLAYS 1 Bibliography 329 Appendixes I. Playwrights’ Profiles 349 II. Reasons for Banning 375 III. 100 Additional Challenged, Censored, or Banned Plays 378 Index 381 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS am profoundly grateful to the many people who made certain that this pro- Iject would be completed and who urged me to continue when many obsta- cles appeared to stand in the way. So many cannot be named, but to them, as well as to the people listed below, I can only say “Thank you.” My sincere appreciation belongs to Bert Holtje, who began the project with me, and for over a decade wisely guided my writing projects as literary agent and friend. A grateful thank you to Gene Brissie, who became my literary agent mid-project and who had the difficult role of supporting and encouraging the completion of this work. I appreciate the work of editors Anne Savarese, who initiated the project with me, and Jeff Soloway, who assumed guardianship of the book midstream and kept my writing going against all odds with his helpful and insightful sug- gestions and encouragement. To I. Macarthur Nickles, director of the Garfield (New Jersey) Public Library, I can only say thank you once again for your help and that of your staff, including but not limited to Kathleen Zalenski, Patricia Gelinski, Karen Calendriello, and Linda Jackson, who found the obscure sources that the book required. The residents of my hometown, Garfield, New Jersey, are for- tunate to have you. Most significantly, I have to thank my son, Robert Gregor, and my mother, Violet Sova, for their patience with me as I often lost my way with the research and my patience with the details of daily life. We grieved together the death of my father, Emil J. Sova, which occurred soon after I began work on this book and we became stronger together. And, to my father, I dedicate the completion of this book. In selecting entries for this volume, the author sought to represent within the reasonable space of a single book the many centuries and diverse coun- tries in which censorship of plays has occurred. Many more plays could have been selected, and much more could have been written, because the number of censorship incidents is vast and the number of plays suppressed significant. Instead, those included are representative of the works and the incidents throughout 2,500 years of theater. To aid both the scholarly researcher and the casual browser, entries are arranged alphabetically by title and include production dates, characters, plot ix BANNED PLAYS summary, and censorship history. Each entry also includes a list of further readings for in-depth examination of the attempts to ban or censor the play. Works whose titles appear in small capital letters have their own entries in the volume. Appendixes contain brief biographies of the playwrights, categoriza- tions of the profiled plays based on the reasons for which they were suppressed, and a list of 100 additional plays that have also been banned or censored. x INTRODUCTION rama is a powerful means of transmitting ideas, and one that has been Dcensored from nearly the first organized performances in the Greek Golden Age around 500 B.C.E. Throughout history, changing political, social, and religious power structures have used drama as a propaganda tool, and these structures have also demanded the elimination or modification of plays that do not agree with their philosophies. A vast number of plays for which scripts are no longer available appear as entries in the records of official censors or receive brief mention in the accounts of long-dead playwrights or crit- ics, thus suggesting that many works written for the stage were suppressed, then forgotten, once they were no longer topical or threatening. No one work can adequately identify the thousands that have been lost, but examination of the 125 plays in this volume, plays that have appeared from 411 B.C.E. to the present, provides a solid understanding of the many reasons why a wide selection of plays from diverse time periods have been challenged, censored, and banned. The suppression of drama remains a disturbing reality in the 21st century, and one that is not dealt with often enough because many people mistakenly view stage censorship as an archaism belonging only to the past. Official government censors no longer exist in England, France, and the United States to determine which plays will be licensed for public performance, but organized groups remain effective in pressuring theaters and theater groups, both ama- teur and professional, to cancel planned performances of plays. Such power may be more dangerous than that wielded by governments in the past, because challenges in recent years have been based on the interests of one group having a specialized agenda against the many. In 1999, performances of WEST SIDE STORY were canceled at a high school because Hispanic students protested that the play provides negative portrayals of Puerto Rican youth in the 1950s. In 2002, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park canceled scheduled performances of playwright Glyn O’Malley’s work Paradise, an examination of the impact of war on Israeli and Palestinian youth, because Cincinnati Muslims protested that the play depicts a character based on Ayat al-Akhras, an 18-year-old girl who blew herself up in Jerusalem in March 2002, murdering three people. Censorship continues to occur on local and regional levels, and many incidents are not reported. xi BANNED PLAYS What constitutes grounds for a legitimate challenge to a play or even the reasons for such challenges are often difficult to define. Such plays as KISMET (1910), VENETIAN NIGHT (1912), and MAYA (1924), in which sexual activity does not occur on stage but remains in the minds of the audience, are con- demned for the same reason—that of portraying “immoral conduct”—as OH! CALCUTTA! (1968), HAIR (1967), and ANGELS IN AMERICA (1994) in which nudity occurs and sexual activity is simulated. Charges of “objectionable language and behavior” that have resulted in the censorship of plays on social grounds range from the uses of what is termed by censors obscene and blasphemous language, as in HAMLET (1601) and VICTOR, OR THECHILDRENTAKEOVER (1964), to the discussion of taboo topics such as homosexuality, adultery, and abortion, as in THEBOYS IN THE BAND (1970), MARGARET FLEMING (1890), and STRANGEINTERLUDE (1928), or violence, as in SAVED (1963) and CAPEMAN (1998). A play by Oscar Wilde, THEIMPORTANCEOF BEINGEARNEST (1895), was banned more because of the playwright’s notoriety than objectionable content. Challenges for religious reasons may be the result of the negative por- trayal of one character, as in THEMERCHANTOF VENICE (1600), WITHIN THE GATES (1934), and THEDEPUTY (1963), or the presentation of the beliefs and activities of a specific religion in an unflattering light, as in SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU (1979). Political reasons for the censorship, suppression, and banning of plays have been equally diverse. In 1789, the English censor refused to grant a license for performance to ISLAND OF ST. MARGUERITE until the playwright removed lines that might be offensive to France. In 1907, after THEMIKADO had been licensed for performance for more than 20 years, the English censor revoked the license on grounds that the play contained “unsuspected dan- gers” and might offend England’s Japanese allies. Plays have also been banned because they contain unfavorable portrayals of prominent individuals or politicians, as in TRIP TO CALAIS (1775) and THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD (1969), as well as for their antiwar views or criticisms of the government, as in WHAT PRICEGLORY ? (1924) and THETHREE -PENNY OPERA (1969). As with censorship in all areas—books, film, art, and other media—guide- lines for objections have not always been clear, nor have the objections to one work remained consistent over time. For centuries, plays, and the reasons that groups seek to challenge, suppress, or ban them, have served as impor- tant indicators of the concerns, desires, passions, and obsessions of a society. What appears on stage and what raises objections often have less to do with merit than with present taste, as changes in political regimes, modified social values, different fashions in religious worship, and greater or lesser sexual permissiveness may condemn a play and playwright that were formerly lauded—or elevate those formerly viewed as politically, religiously, socially, or morally offensive.

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