Download There are protestors outside the performance of a play I`m seeing

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There are protestors outside the
performance of a play I’m seeing.
What do I do?
Protecting our Freedom
to Write and Read
English PEN believes in the freedom to write and the freedom to
read. When anyone’s freedom is being challenged, we can help
them – and so can you.
PEN believes that free speech isn’t a passive right, but an active
responsibility: anyone can participate, just by reading a book or
having a conversation! In these helpsheets, we explore further
actions you can take to experience your freedom of expression and
help extend it for yourself and others. We hope they encourage
you to listen as well as speak: a crucial part of ensuring freedom of
expression for everyone.
The helpsheets are divided up to reflect the kinds of cases we deal
with. Each helpsheet tells you a little bit about the history of a form
of censorship and some of the writers who have experienced it,
so you can imagine what it might be like to be in their shoes.
The helpsheets also offer information about the current situation
of writers around the world facing that form of censorship,
some questions you can discuss in class, and some ideas and
suggestions for how you can change the story.
There are
protestors outside
the performance of
a play I’m seeing.
What do I do?
This helpsheet focuses on the act of protest:
people using their bodies and voices to be
heard. It looks at the impact of protests
directed at theatre productions, and other
possibilities for changing the narrative, using
creative writing as well as class discussion.
Staging a Protest
Imagine: there is a play at a theatre near your school that paints teenagers
as feral and amoral, based on media reports about youth knife crime.
You and your friends are worried that it will provoke people to attack you
for being teenagers, and decide to protest this.
Divide the class into groups. Give them a few minutes to come up with
slogans or images, then give each group a few pieces of A2 cardboard
or stiff paper and some marker pens to make signs. Ask each group to
come up with a slogan to shout as well.
Clear the middle of the room, and get each group to walk around it a few
times, waving their banners and chanting their slogan. Once every group
has had a go, ask them how it felt. What effect did it have on them? What
effect did they think it might have on a potential audience?
Now ask them to imagine the reverse: they are going to the theatre with
your family, friends or school group, to see a play on an issue they care
about – and outside there are protestors with signs! Some of them are
angry, some of them are sad, some of them try to give you a leaflet or
shout at you: how do you feel? What do you do? Ask for responses,
leading in to:
Group discussion:
Do people have a right to say whatever they want on stage?
Do people have a right to protest any piece of art, even if it prevents
audience members from getting in to it?
Do protests work – ask for examples from all fields of political protest.
What is it particularly about theatre that brings out protestors?
People don’t protest outside bookstores or art galleries (although
they do sometimes damage art work, or ask for it to be removed).
Prompt students to think about LIVE audiences and the difference
between, say, reading about a kiss and seeing it performed right in
front of you.
Theatre History
Theatre has faced censorship since its recorded inception.
One of the oldest written and performed drama we know about,
Aeschylus’ play The Persians, was censored after its performance
in 472 BCE.
The play is set in Persia, where the Queen Mother Atossa is waiting
for her son, King Xerxes, to return from war. The Greeks had defeated
Xerxes’ army only eight years earlier: but the play is sympathetic
towards the defeated Persians – this was apparently so shocking
that it’s claimed that pregnant women miscarried in the aisles.
Athenian playwrights were subsequently banned from referring
directly to recent history and current events in their plays, and women
appear to have been banned from attending the theatre!
The Greek philosopher Plato writes in his book The Republic that
theatre is immoral, because it shows an idealised, pretend version
of the world, which stops the audience from thinking about the real
world they live in and aspiring to a better one. Many religions also
think theatre is immoral: during the English Civil War, the Puritan
government banned theatre because of its racy themes, and because
of male actors playing female characters.
From 1737 to 1968, theatre in the UK was formally subject to the
Lord Chamberlain’s Office. All new plays and stage shows had to
be read and approved for performance: many major dramatists
like George Bernard Shaw initially had their work banned.
While there is no formal censorship in the UK anymore
(except for films, which have to be passed by the British Board
of Film Classification, guidelines here), there are frequent protests,
which sometimes even shut down productions.
Theatre History Continued
Protests have taken place outside a number of productions of plays
in recent years, with notable cases including:
Terence McNally’s Corpus Christi, which depicts Jesus as gay.
There were protests by Christians outside performances in
Edinburgh, and when the same production opened in London,
the Shari’a Court of the UK issued a fatwa against it.
Jerry Springer: The Opera, by Richard Thomas, was the subject
of multiple complaints (about obscenity and offense to religious,
predominantly Christian, sensibilities) to the BBC when broadcast,
and faced protests on its UK and US tours.
England People Very Nice by Richard Bean experienced an
on-stage protest at the National Theatre against its depiction of
its Bangladeshi characters.
A production of The Merchant of Venice by Israeli theatre
company Habima at London’s Globe in 2012 was protested by
pro-Palestinian activists.
Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children was accused of
anti-Semitism. You can read the playtext here, with several
reviews linked in the headnote.
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s play Bezhti was accused of religious
offence to Sikhs and sexual depravity for attempting to address
sexual abuse.You can read the Birmingham Repertory Theatre
director’s account of the small number of violent protestors who
stopped the play’s run and turned it into a cause celèbre here.
Pick one or more cases to review with the class, exploring the
arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ each play. Is there any justification to
the arguments ‘against’? If so, was a protest a good way to address
the protestors’ concerns – what did it achieve?
Speaking Back
This is for use with older
students who feel confident
with difficult material
Counter-theatre is a brilliant way of addressing concerns –
and adding to the power of theatre. Seven Jewish Children was
followed/answered by new plays by:
Deborah Margolin, Seven Palestinian Children
Richard Stirling, Seven Other Children
All three playwrights made their scripts freely available for
performance, and encouraged theatres to perform two or more and
engender audience discussion. Divide the class into three groups,
and give each group a scene of your choice from one of the three
available plays, and get them to prepare a staged reading.
The Independent newspaper published a portfolio of letters
relating to the play and to Howard Jacobson’s review that called it
anti-Semitic, including Churchill’s response, here. Use points from these
letters to guide the discussion comparing the scenes from the plays.
Get students to think about how together the plays create a fuller
picture and more informed debate, rather than about which one is
politically right or wrong.
Staging a Protest II
This can be an individual or group exercise. Ask students to write a
short scene, or handful of short scenes if in a group, responding to
the hypothetical play that demonised young people (there are lots of
examples of media material that you could supply as prompts).
Here are some concrete examples of counter-theatre
and protest theatre.
Allegory (telling one story to refer to another) is a good way to address
censorship. If you read any of William Shakespeare’s plays, you’ll
notice that he never refers directly to any recent history or current
affairs, because writers in the UK could be imprisoned or executed
for speaking out against the monarch. So he uses the ancient story
of the Scottish king Macbeth and his vanquisher Banquo, from whom
King James I was said to be descended.
In Eastern Europe, many playwrights turned to absurdism as a way
of documenting everyday life under Communism without being put on
trial. Because everyday life was absurd, audiences understood what
a playwright like Eugene Ionesco meant when he put a rhinoceros on
stage…
‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ was an idea created by a teacher
called Paolo Freire (whose books have been challenged in the
US): rather than using expensive theatre and trained actors, Freire
suggested that theatre-makers make plays in public spaces, and
with opportunities for participation: the actors would turn to the
audience and ask ‘What shall we do now?’
Another popular strategy for communities mis-represented or
under-represented on stage is testimonial or documentary theatre.
Eve Ensler’sThe Vagina Monologues is the most famous example:
about views of women, their bodies and their sexuality, based on
interviews. The Colour of Justice, by Richard Norton-Taylor, is a
documentary play based on the transcript of the Macpherson inquiry
into the Metropolitan Police’s failure in the Stephen Lawrence case.
Although Bezhti didn’t get to complete its run, the play survived its
protests: it had a staged reading in London, and full stagings in
France and Belgium. Bhatti has since written a play dramatising her
experience, Behud, with a version of herself as the main character.
Belarus Free Theatre was formed in the UK by Natalia Kaliada,
Nicolai Khalezin, and Vladimir Shcherban, all political exiles from
Belarus, where theatre is heavily censored and theatre-makers are
prosecuted and disappeared. They make political theatre based on
the ideas of Total Football: speed, urgency, teamwork, and the key
one for counter-theatre – a shift from defence to attack.
Credits
This learning resource is part of the series ‘Help!’,
which focuses on core free speech issues for young
people within a school or other learning setting.
They were written by Dr. Sophie Mayer and funded
by English PEN.
Design and photography:
Brett Evans Biedscheid
www.statetostate.co.uk