Monday 2 November 2009

alan bennett regrets passing of censorship

Stage censorship was abolished in 1968, the year of Alan Bennett's first play. So, he says, he was never been 'seriously incommoded' by it.

But for other reasons, the playwright regrets its abolition:

insofar as it seemed to me to deplete significantly the armoury of the dramatist. With censorship there was a line between what one could and couldn’t say and the nearer one got to this line the greater the tension: how candid did one dare to be? Would the men kiss or the women fondle? After censorship went, the dramatist had to manufacture tension of his/her own.

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