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Danger! IntoleranceDateline: 21st December, 2004No one can blame the management of the Birmingham Rep for being so concerned for the safety of their audiences that they cancelled Behzti. For families to have to run the gauntlet of protesters when they are simply going to see another show (Roald Dahl's The Witches) in another auditorium is unacceptable and the Rep took the only decision it could in the circumstances. However chief exec Stuart Rogers is also right when he says that the whole saga is a matter of real concern. Theatre, unless it produces nothing but the bland, is going to offend someone, whether on religious, moral, political, racial or many other grounds. If a play, to take just one example, deals sympathetically with homosexuality, it will offend the religious right and organisations like Christian Voice: if a play treats it as wrong, thus pleasing the religious right, it offends homosexuals. We have heard in recent days that the makers of the film version if Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials have decided to remove all references to God and the church, thus totally changing the meaning of the piece - indeed, emasculating it. On the same day that the Birmingham protests happened, we learned that the staff of a student newspaper at St Andrews were locked out of their office and told to undertake "cultural diversity training" because an article by the editor said, "I have secretly suspected the Welsh of evil doings ever since they spawned the caterwauling Charlotte Church." Clearly the Students' Association, which made the protest, have not only had a sense of humour by-pass but a common sense by-pass too. After I wrote the article Fuming! a couple of weeks ago (in which I used the proposed ban on smoking in enclosed public places as an example of a creeping censorship), I received a number of emails, some of which were supportive, some opposed but well-balanced, but some virtually hate mail, with the message being "I hate smoking and people who smoke deserve to die". We live in a society in which, increasingly, people are taking the attitude "what I think/believe/want is right and no one must say anything which will upset me." And so many are now running for cover and trying to be as inoffensive to everyone as they possibly can be. A primary school near where I live has had a purely secular Christmas this year: celebrations, yes; panto, yes; Christmas cards, yes: but no nativity play - because it might be offensive to the small number of Moslem children in the school and their families. It shows a remarkable ignorance on the part of the headteacher and governors, for if they knew anything about Islam, they would know Muslims would not find any true religious observance offensive. In fact, I suspect that they would be vastly more offended by the idea that they would find it offensive. If you (generic "you", like the French "on" or the German "Mann" - I am not accusing you, dear reader!) want the right to believe what you believe, then you have to accept that others have the right to believe something different. And if someone says something you find offensive, then you have the right to make your feelings known, but not to initimidate him and certainly not to prevent him believing or saying it. Freedom of speech cuts many ways, and if you want the freedom to say what you want, you have to give the same freedom to everyone else. As I said in the previous article, we are seeing more and more signs of creeping, almost back-door censorship from special interest groups of every kind. They must be resisted or we'll end up with the theatre equivalent of daytime television: totally bland, completely uninteresting and a thing to be avoided. The cold wind is already being felt: radio and TV producer Anne Edyvean, who was responsible for the highly regarded Babyfather and the multiracial soap Westway, said of the events surrounding Behzti, "It makes me worry that people will see violent protests can successfully take off a play. "I think that people are already scared about dealing with issues of colour, race and religion but it is a question of freedom of expression and this will have to be dealt with." 'Nuff said? If you agree with this reaction to the events in Birmingham and would like to express your opinion to the "powers-that-be", please visit our Forum and email the letter set out there to Ben Payne at the Rep so that he can arrange for its publication with - hopefully - a whole host of signatures.
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