'Stitching' author launching London petition over ban

Joseph A Borg

Feb 23rd 2009, 13:01

@ J Farrugia: is that a veiled threat at Mr Neilsen?

I assume you are advocating a return of the Inquisition and public pillory or worst, when you fail to abide by the state's whims?

Have you read the play? Have you seen it performed? then you have no business in judging because your interpretation is wrong.

Christopher Grech

Feb 16th 2009, 14:24

CONSTITUTION OF MALTA 41. (1) Except with his own consent or by way of parental discipline, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference, freedom to communicate ideas and information without interference (whether the communication be to the public generally or to any person or class of persons) and freedom from interference with his correspondence. (2) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of subarticle (1) of this article to the extent that the law in question makes provision - (a) that is reasonably required - (i) in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or decency, or public health; or (ii) for the purpose of protecting the reputations, rights and freedoms of other persons, or the private lives of persons concerned in... Now we have to balance what is decent with freedom. Our fathers have shed our blood for our freedom from the Nazis. At least in Malta you are not forced to see the play if you dont want to! Freedom!

Frans Sammut

Feb 16th 2009, 14:02

... and by the way, I am in no way associated with the blogger signing "F.Sammut" who is, of course, entitled to his/her opinion.

John Smith

Feb 16th 2009, 13:21

We should be allowed to view it if we like, being adults. If we think it would shock us, no problem, we wouldn't go to see it. What's next, banning tango music as its too scandalous? The sheer thought of this idiocy is tremendous.

Kenneth Cassar

Feb 16th 2009, 10:43

@ david muscat:

Can you please tell us who exactly called for the Pope's resignation? I'm sure that if someone did, it wasn't anyone commenting here. So where's the hypocricy?

martin portelli

Feb 16th 2009, 10:41

@ Pierre Micallef Grimaud

'Personally don't don't think it's suitable for our culture'

Culture is a rather Fluid term, which culture are you speaking of ? Have the authorities set up a culture purifying squad Joe and Mary Public are not aware of? Are some citizens invested with arbitrary rights denied to the rest that invests them with the authority to decide for others?

martin portelli

Feb 16th 2009, 10:30

@ GIov De MArtino

'In case it has slipped our memory: There was a time when we were not allowed to watch the film Raid on Entebbe. Neither the Church nor Gonzipn had banned it. But LABOUR.'

Why are you loudly proclaiming affinities with Socialist censorship then ?

'No foreigner should be allowed to defy the law.'

Want to declare them 'persona non grata' perhaps?

Kenneth Cassar

Feb 16th 2009, 10:11

Someone please remind me...did we join the European Union or the Soviet Union?

Wayne Flask

Feb 16th 2009, 09:26

The Taliban are upon us...

Good luck Adrian Buckle.

GiovDeMartino

Feb 15th 2009, 15:46

In case it has slipped our memory: There was a time when we were not allowed to watch the film Raid on Entebbe. Neither the Church nor Gonzipn had banned it. But LABOUR.

O Sammut

Feb 15th 2009, 12:51

Im Maltese, Im European,
I live in a free country, im allowed to watch what i please,
What right does some med-evil group of Cowboys have on what i want to watch or hear?
Is this the modern Country the goverment want to portray to the World?
1 step forward, 100 back

david muscat

Feb 15th 2009, 10:03

A play spellbound with sexual perversions that obscenely mocks Auschwitz victims is being dubbed here as a work of art!!! Now few days ago some in the media called for the Pope's resignation because of Bishop Williamson the latter is a Holocaust denier. I ask these guys to look open the Oxford Dictionary and read the entry about "hypocrisy".

GiovDeMartino

Feb 15th 2009, 09:42

I am a stupid person and I am not interested in the theatre. I couldn't care less whether the play is staged or not, but i do insist that steps be taken against whoever breaks the law. We are an independent state and it is our government to decide. No foreigner should be allowed to defy the law.

Roberto Bordino

Feb 15th 2009, 09:21

Can someone tell me how you get a job as a film and theatre censor? What qualifications do you need? I bet you don't have to know anything about theatre or the arts.. I'd love a job like this, how do I apply

F. Sammut

Feb 15th 2009, 00:51

Can;t they just put 18 or 21. Who ever want to see it can go and anyone who doesn;t, can stay at home. Since when do we need the gov to deceide. ...... oh yes... indirectly the church is probably butting in as it usually does. When is it going to learn to shut up, and when will the gov ignore it

joe camenzuli

Feb 14th 2009, 20:48

I can't see what all the fuss is all about. One can see worst than that on Foriegn stations in this age of satellite transmission.

D Fenech

Feb 14th 2009, 20:18

Another perspective:
The sensational New York show comes to Los Angeles.
Stu and Abby love each other so madly, they're driving each other crazy. Stitching follows the increasingly disturbing and inventive games the couple plays in order to connect. As they circle and test each other, they role-play with reality and fantasy to the point where even they don't seem sure what is real anymore. When Abby discovers she's pregnant, the choices they make will haunt them forever. The visceral poetry and physicality between the lovers creates a surprisingly tender, often humorous, brutal romance. Stitching is a complex love story that takes a bracing look at the startling casualties of modern romance.

"Anthony Neilson's Stitching is one of the most exciting plays of the year… I left the theatre with my pulse, and my mind racing." - Time Out London

Joseph Schembri

Feb 14th 2009, 19:22

"Meital Dohan as Abby and Gian Murray Gianino as Stu in a scene from Anthony Neilson’s play at the Wild Project theater.

That it doesn’t is mostly the fault of Anthony Neilson’s script, which works so hard at being gimmicky that it doesn’t give Ms. Dohan and her co-star, Gian Murray Gianino, a chance to find real chemistry. No chemistry, no combustion.

The two play a young couple who, in alternating vignettes, are seen partaking in increasingly volatile sex games and contemplating the news that she is pregnant. Mr. Neilson is playing around with time and with the audience’s preconceptions. He is also going for shock value, but patrons of the theaters in this part of town have seen it all before.

The play, though, places too many demands on them as it tries to ricochet from comedy to pathos to psychosis without ever really providing the starting point that any play needs: a reason to care about these self-obsessed characters." http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/theater/reviews/27stit.html

IT SOUNDS OH SO BORING - WHO CARES?

Eric Gahn

Feb 14th 2009, 18:37

@Pierre Micallef Grimaud

Thank you for deciding on my behalf that the play is not siutable for me. Now can you buy me an ice-cream please daddy.

Rayomnd Camilleri

Feb 14th 2009, 18:29

Pierre Micallef Grimaud has 'read the play' and DECIDED that it is not 'suitable for our culture'....thanks for deciding what 'our culture' is and for deciding for each and every one of us what to watch and what not to watch...

Pierre Micallef Grimaud

Feb 14th 2009, 17:35

Pity most of the critics here don't know what the play has in it's script. I happened to read it and personally, don't think its suitable for our culture. It should go back where it came from.

Alex Ellul

Feb 14th 2009, 17:18

If the UK authorities can ban Geert Wilders and his video, we can ban Anthony Neilson and his play. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Byron Camilleri

Feb 14th 2009, 15:25

In simple terms.... The Board of Film and Stage Classification thinks that we are idiots and cannot choose for ourselves.

D Fenech

Feb 14th 2009, 14:34

Adrian buckle is right!
I had hoped the days of censorship were behind us!
He will win his case because he is right!
I had intended to attend the performance and i am no chicken and no wild butterfly!
This is an adult play for an adult audience! An adult theme!
Therese Frigieri has no right to decide for the rest of us. If she is not mature enough to watch it she need not attend.

Carmel Camilleri

Feb 14th 2009, 14:19

Oh, so Anthony Nielson now wants the support of our former colonists to pressure our government into changing this independent country's laws so as to allow plays such as his to be staged here.

I'm sorry... but the last thing I wish for my country is being bossed by a foreigner over such trivial matters.

Mr. Gatt and Mr. Buckle have lost that little bit of sympathy that I had towards their cause.

Muscat.Pat

Feb 14th 2009, 14:12

Vote GonziPN and you get medieval cobwebs!

Lawrence Dalli

Feb 14th 2009, 12:52

Ihave one simple question only. What is the Board of Film and Stage Classification afraid of?

mario borg

Feb 14th 2009, 12:51

are we full member in secular EU? are we sure?

Alex Ellul

Feb 14th 2009, 12:40

In response to his expulsion from Britain, Dutch legislator Geert Wilders announced yesterday he is taking his controversial film on Islam on "a world tour" - beginning next week with Rome.

On Thursday, British immigration officers detained Wilders at Heathrow Airport and put him on a plane back to the Netherlands. This was done under orders from the Home Office, whose officials said Wilders' presence would disrupt public order.

"This event [in Rome] is part of the 'Facing Jihad' world tour that will serve to expose Islam for what it is, an ideology that preaches terrorism, anti-Semitism and the oppression of women, homosexuals and non-Muslims," Wilders said.

David Cefai

Feb 14th 2009, 12:35

"Where's the morality in censorship?"

It's not morality. It's a way for a few (unelected) people to impose their views on everybody.

Mario Bonnici

Feb 14th 2009, 12:32

Are we in living in 2009 or medeieval time??!!
We still have people who want to decide for us.
Adults have the right to decide for themselves.

Alex Ellul

Feb 14th 2009, 12:32

How ironing. What hypocricy. The author of 'Stiching' is launching a campaign in London against Malta's ban on is play, the same City that banned from the U.K. Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, even arresting him at his arrival in Heathrow airport and putting him immediately on a plane back out of the UK, while banning his video from being shown in the UK.

It's a world gone mad.

Noel Zarb

Feb 14th 2009, 12:30

It is good that Unifaun has decided to put up the show just the same. Ms Friggieri can then see it and see whether it is worth the ban. But anyway, in this day and age, when the London West End is full of daring and "shocking" plays and when Porn and sex-related material is available to PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, FREE OF CHARGE on the internet, the ban is irrelevant.

People pay to go to the theatre so watching Stitching is at their discretion. No one is forced to go to watch it and no one should be forced to not go watch it. REVOKE THE BAN NOW, it is in the best interest of Theatre in Malta, which is finally gaining some popularity!

Melissa Bagley

Feb 14th 2009, 12:12

Of course, the authorities have to choose for us adults.....in 2009.

J Farrugia

Feb 14th 2009, 11:56

Dear Mr Neilson, please do us a favour. Instead of your play having blasphemous content, why not change from the Catholic religion to Muslim religion, so that we can see what happens to you and your crew? If you still will be alive by that time, I will be the first one to come and see the play, but until then you and your crew will never bring pressure on us the Maltese citizens to do what your atheism wants us to do. Never. No pressure neither from the EU nor from the Government will ever change the ban that the Classification Board have imposed on your tasteless 'play' (sic). It's just an affront and an insult against our catholic principles. Go and produce it in any Islamic country you want But not in Malta. You have no right to insult the silent majority of our country. A foreigner wants to order our government like a puppet on a string, about what happens in our country.

Daniel Cassar

Feb 14th 2009, 11:34

As long as the play is classified for adults only and the adults are all conscious of the content of the play for which they will be attending, the ban is utterly unjustified.
Cannot believe that in this day and age we are still banning content from being viewed by adults!
Thanks

Abel Abela

Feb 14th 2009, 11:32

Why oh why do Messrs Gatt, Buckle, Neilson have to fight this anti-censorship battle in EU-member state Malta in 2009?
In view of the adult contents and subject of the play, couldn't the Maltese "Board of Film and Stage Classification" have classified the play as strictly Adults Only and let adult theatre goers decide for themselves?
Is it possible that Malta takes its moral values so seriously that it is happy with having Big Daddy financed by public taxpayer money to treat its adult citizens like little kids?
Where's the morality in censorship? If only out of curiosity or to make a point, people will now flock to the show, and the opposite effect will result!