Friday, November 25, 2005

In The Great Tradition Of The British Theater...

NOT


Marlowe's Koran-burning hero is censored to avoid Muslim anger

By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent

"IT WAS the surprise hit of the autumn season, selling out for its entire run and inspiring rave reviews. But now the producers of Tamburlaine the Great have come under fire for censoring Christopher Marlowe’s 1580s masterpiece to avoid upsetting Muslims.

Audiences at the Barbican in London did not see the Koran being burnt, as Marlowe intended, because David Farr, who directed and adapted the classic play, feared that it would inflame passions in the light of the London bombings.

Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, said that if they had not altered the original it “would have unnecessarily raised the hackles of a significant proportion of one of the world’s great religions”.

This is how wussified the Brits have become. A MARLOWE play is altered because it might "unecessarily" raise a hackle. We're not talking the Vagina Monologues now, this is Tamburlaine the Great, but so sorry old chap we can't go around upsetting people. Bad form. Sticky wicket.

Pathetic.

And I won't even go-there about "one of the world's great religions".

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