WORDS Maud Sampson
In 21st century theatre it appears anything goes. From Dublin theatre group Pan Pan’s setting of J.M. Synge’s quintessentially Irish play A Playboy of the Western World in modern day China, to a production of Chekhov’s The Seagull last year containing live oral sex, the days of censorship on the Western stage appears to be resigned to history. Yet when it comes to the depiction and questioning of religion in theatres, freedom of expression is questionable.
This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the opening of Behzti (meaning dishonour in Punjabi) by British Sikh playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, one of the most controversial theatrical productions of the last decade. The black comedy tells the story of a daughter who takes her sick mother to a fictional gurdwara, a Sikh temple and sacred site. Harrowing events of abuse, rape and murder take place, with the programme questioning, “In a community where public honour is paramount, is there any room for the truth?”.
The sell-out production deeply offended many members of the Sikh community, who deemed it a sacrilegious attack on Sikhism. With elders calling for the play to be re-set in a community centre and the constant presence of protesters outside the theatre, after several weeks the peaceful protests escalated into violence that saw 400 protesters attempt to storm the building. Hundreds of audience members were evacuated from the theatre and thousands of pounds worth of damage caused, precipitating the Rep’s decision to discontinue the production. Most disturbingly, Bhatti herself received murder and abduction threats and under the advice of the police was forced into hiding out of fear for her life.
The impact of the decision to axe the play had wide ramifications, opening up a fierce debate surrounding the suppression of freedom of expression by violence in a supposedly democratic state. It became apparent that not just the Sikh community was offended by Bhatti’s play; right-wing religious members supported the ban, such as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham who equated the play with an attack on holy places of every religion. By contrast, in opposition to what they saw as an affront to democracy, over 700 leading figures in the art world at the time, including author Jonathon Coe, director Samuel West, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and the entire cast of Behzti signed an open letter condemning the decision to axe the play. The letter took a stand against violent intimidation, stating, “We all have the right to protest peacefully if a work of art offends us. We do not have the right to use violence and intimidation to prevent that work of art from being seen by others.”
Yet despite the overwhelming show of support for Bhatti, Behzti has only once been performed in Britain since it was cancelled, in an unadvertised performance in 2010. Last year Bhatti yet again came up against attempts to suppress her artistic voice, this time by the BBC. She felt compelled to speak out against their “extraordinary” censorship of an episode about honour killings she wrote for a Radio 4 programme. A week before it was due to be aired the compliance department demanded that she changed lines that they interpreted as insinuating the whole of the Muslim community as condoning honour killings.
Bhatti is not alone in being the victim of attempted censorship of drama containing controversial religious content. In 2011 the staging of the allegedly “Christianophobic” play Golgota Picnic at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris provoked Catholic protests, with the head of the theatre receiving death threats. Similarly, just last month the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s comic play The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged) was temporarily banned from being performed at Theatre at the Mill in Newtownabbey, County Antrim after protests from Christian groups and the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) over its alleged profanity of Christianity.
Drama has always been used to contest conventions, perceptions and social attitudes, and there is no reason why religious issues should transcend this dialogue. Every individual, both playwright and protester, is entitled to freedom of expression, but there is a difference between challenging an idea and using intimidation and violence to ensure that the idea is suppressed. When this happens it is not only a threat to artistic and theatrical autonomy, but to the democratic ideals of society.
