Censorship of play is not a one-off

Francis Zammit Dimech and Fr Joe Borg are very misinformed if they think that the censorship of Stitching is a one-off, or something trivial that rarely happens.

A mere two years ago, the MADC produced Laughing Wild by OBIE award-winning playwright Christopher Durang. The play was censored in spite of its 'Adults Only' rating and a public warning that some scenes might offend.

The censors had initially called for the outright banning of the play. Following protests from the producers, they insisted on the omission of an entire - crucial - scene.

Finally, the censors were invited to a rehearsal in order to experience our interpretation of the script and watch the play in context. Still, objections were raised and, following lengthy discussions, some cuts were agreed upon - albeit under protest.

If memory serves me correctly we were warned that, had the MADC decided to go ahead with the unedited version, we would run the risk of being closed down by the police and the actors arrested.

The right to "shock, offend and disturb" as stated by the European Court of Human Rights be damned.

Paul Xuereb had enjoyed the play, describing it as "odd" because of its structural oddity of mixing realism with surrealism. Nowhere in his piece did the respected drama critic suggest that he, or anyone else for that matter, was culturally offended in any way.

Columnist Kenneth Zammit Tabona described the play as "weird and wonderful" with "intellectually deep dialogues". Mark Mangion in Showtime praised the play as "an exceptionally good production".

What is not commonly known, perhaps, is that the mature adult audience who chose to come to the theatre to watch Laughing Wild of their own free will got to watch a doctored version of the original.

I understand the censors and the judiciary refused go to watch a staged rehearsal of Stitching - thereby censoring their own interpretation of the script - not the actual performance.

Their interpretation of the piece, I suspect, may be a lot more shocking and offensive than that of the director and actors. But, alas, we will never know for sure.