THEATRE’S SPECIALIST SUBJECT IS HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS. This, together with an openness to new ideas and socially liberal values, has for centuries placed theatre at odds with those who saw danger in such expressions. Plays were censored by the Master of the Revels during the reign of Elizabeth I and London’s stage silenced by parliament’s order from 1642 to 1660. Following the 1737 Licensing Act, the task of playhouse censor rested with the Lord Chamberlain, assisted by his Examiner of Plays.
From attempting to police political or religious unorthodoxy, theatre censorship morphed into taking upon itself responsibility for a national moral code: no sex please, we are British. The theatre rose to the challenge as practitioners from George Bernard Shaw to music hall artistes such as Marie Lloyd endeavoured to push the boundaries.
Appearing before the Vigilance Committee (which censored music halls) in 1896, Lloyd toned down her gestures while performing her songs to the extent that the committee agreed the songs were acceptable. She then performed a genuinely innocent song of the time, “Come into the Garden, Maud” with such vim and innuendo that it was rendered totally obscene.
In the mid-sixties, Alan Ayckbourn wrote . The play opens with the sounds of Ginny off stage in the shower and Greg waking up. He is
