Church censor says give Stitching 18 R rating, not ban it

The chairman of the Church's film classification board declared yesterday he would have approved the banned controversial play Stitching for adult viewing because he believed mature people should be free to watch it.

Fr Joe Abela said he would have approved the play but rated it 18 R, allowing all mature adults to watch it.

The plot, he said, was one of suffering and dealt with the loss of a child; it was a chance for people to try to understand the pain parents endured in such cases.

The play, penned by Scottish writer Anthony Neilson, addresses such themes as death and abortion.

Unifaun Theatre was planning to stage the play in February but was banned by the Board of Film and Stage Classification, a decision that sparked a storm of indignation. With no solution in sight, Unifaun took the board, headed by Therese Friggieri, to court to try and overturn the decision.

During a hearing yesterday, Mr Justice Joseph Zammit Mckeon read out part of the play where in the course of a fight with his wife, the male character said he would urinate on her. He asked Fr Abela whether he would still approve of it if, hypothetically speaking, this actually happened on stage.

The priest said he would because the play delved into the characters' suffering. Interrupting his testimony, the judge asked whether the author had to use vulgar language to bring out the same emotions.

Fr Abela said the language employed was ordinary words used by everyday people and the play reflected this: "Swearing is in our culture. I'm not saying I agree, but it is."

He added: "As a free person you should have the right to watch the play. The play also helped me to better understand the suffering of grieving parents who lost a child."

Mr Nielson, who flew to Malta specifically to testify in the case, said the play had been performed across the globe and was penned in 2002. In the same year, it won Best Play by Time Out magazine and led to him being named Most Promising Director by the London newspaper The Evening Standard.

He explained that the play was about a couple, Stewart and Abbey, who were contemplating whether to keep the baby. Their decision was sealed when they felt a baby would help bring them closer. The child was born but died after being hit by a car while the parents were having an argument and they both lived with the guilt of their child's death.

They split for a while and their grief reunites them a short time after as they are the only ones who understand each other and the loss. Their reunion is perverted; she appears as a prostitute, to distance herself from the emotions of reuniting and slips further into mental illness.

Mr Nielson said the production was not meant for children because they would not understand the suffering the parents experienced. When questioned who the play targeted, he said he would not make any assumption, as it had appealed to all ages, races and people.

"The script is simply words; it is up to the actors to bring in their own personalities and interpretation and it can be interpreted in many different ways," he said.

When asked whether a pornographic picture mentioned in the script would be shown during the performance, Mr Nielson said this was up to the director. When he had directed it he had used a representation of the picture, which was a red piece of paper so as not to cause "needless offence".

In the play, the Auschwitz concentration camp is also mentioned, when the lead actor confesses that as a boy he had masturbated to a picture of a naked woman standing in the camp.

Mr Nielson justified this scene: "Young men are concerned with procreation and not death. He was looking at a naked woman and not the person dying in the camp and, in fact, it has nothing to do with Auschwitz".

Asked whether the production formed part of what was called fringe theatre and whether it had been staged in mainstream theatre, Mr Nielson said he has nothing to do with what the media described as "in-yer-face theatre".

He said "every line is there for a reason" when asked if removing the swearing would detract from the actual performance.

In his opinion, there should be no limitations on stage, however, it was up to the author's moral values to decide what to include and ensure nobody was hurt in the process: "In the UK there are no restrictions on words or ideas."

Deputy Attorney General Peter Grech and lawyers Joseph Bonello, Victoria Buttigieg and Christian Falzon Scerri appeared for the classification board.

Lawyers Ian Refalo, Michael Zammit Maempel and Sarah Grima appeared for Unifaun.

The case continues.