Banned Plays

Banned Plays is a journey through a series of stories of love, lust, betrayal, despair and salvation as well as a reminder of the dangers of censorship. Oscar Wilde’s Biblical story of Salome was condemned as “blasphemous and pornographic”; Henrick Ibsen’s Ghosts was banned in England for failing to show respect for the institution of marriage and it’s public discussion of venereal disease. Lesser known plays include Edouard Bourdet’s The Captive and Michael McClure’s The Beard, two plays in which the original casts were arrested for obscenity.

While some of the issues raised may seem mild by today’s standards, others touch on social and political issues that we find ourselves still facing.