Banned play to go ahead

The producers of the banned play Stitching refuse to be gagged and plan to stage the production in the coming days even if they risk facing imprisonment.

"We are not saying we're above public decency laws. However, censoring a play is illegitimate," director Chris Gatt said, adding that Unifaun Productions was merely finalising the performance dates and venue.

The play, which should have opened at St James Cavalier, Valletta, on Friday, was banned because the Film and Stage Classification board felt in this case the "envelope has been pushed beyond the limits of public decency".

Listing the reasons that led to the ban, board chairman Teresa Friggieri wrote to the producers saying: "The play is a sinister tapestry of violence and perversion where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole."

Mr Gatt said when Anthony Neilson, the play's Scottish author, was relayed the reasons, he retorted by saying all this was "very exciting, but sadly this is not my play".

Mr Neilson is launching a petition among the theatre industry in London to pressure the Maltese government into divesting the board of its right to censor or ban productions.

Twelve days ago the producers filed a judicial protest, arguing that the ban went against their freedom of expression, and lawyer Michael Zammit Maempel said to date this had been ignored.

Addressing a press conference at the Radisson Baypoint Hotel, St Julian's, Mr Gatt said it was political folly to ignore the judicial protest and they would be going ahead with the show regardless.

However, Ms Friggieri later issued a statement saying the production could not be staged, and if the producers went ahead they would be breaking the law; but it was their call.

She pointed out that a legal process, which the producers themselves had started, was underway, and the least they could do was have the decency to wait for the outcome.

"The play, from beginning to end, is an insult to human dignity... It is not the board's job to defend the law; it is our duty to observe it," she said.

Mr Gatt defended the production saying that while the script may come across as shocking when read, it played out completely differently: "This is a tragic love story; a psychological drama. Are we in a position where as adults we cannot examine our darker sense of sexuality?"

British newspaper reviews have described Stitching as "surprisingly tender", with a "terrible beauty"; a "mesmerising, if shocking, experience as a couple smashes through taboo after taboo in a harrowing sexual tug of war".

However, Ms Friggieri described it as blasphemous against the State religion; obscene contempt for Auschwitz victims, and an "encyclopaedic review of dangerous sexual perversions".

Producer Adrian Buckle stressed that Stitching is a valid theatrical experience and the team behind it intended to challenge these comments by staging the play to prove otherwise.

Although staging a play without a police licence will only lead to a mere fine of €11.65, their decision does not come without risks. Dr Zammit Maempel said that according to the Criminal Code the police had a right to stop the play if there was a breach of public order and morality. This could also lead to imprisonment.

Mr Gatt said it was ironic that they were holding the press conference on the precise day, 20 years ago, when a religious edict, a fatwa, was issued calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, for his "blasphemous" novel The Satanic Verses.

"We're in a situation where the arts in Malta have moved on, and the laws (on film and stage classification which have changed very little since 1937) have not. Are we going to continue gagging the artistic community?"