As dear Daniel Radcliffe celebrates the debut of his dick on Broadway (as Equus opens there this week) we too can celebrate a milestone.
For today is the 40th anniversary of the triumphal lifting of the control of the censors over British theatre. Amazingly this remarkable law, brought in in 1737 to counter the rise of satirical drama and reinforced (unsurprisingly) by the Victorians, made it illegal for any new or adapted play to be performed without the permission of the Lord Chamberlain - until 1968.
According to an excellent article by Michael Billington in What's On Stage: "Over the years, plays by Sophocles, Ibsen and Shaw were subject to bans. Both A View from the Bridge and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof had to be staged in London, initially, under members-only "club" conditions to evade the censor."
Read his article
Unbelievable, really, in this day and age. The first controversial performance in London - staged one day after the ban was lifted - was the hippy musical Hair, which became an overnight success.
Nowadays of course we hardly bat an eyelid to controversy (unless of course you happen to be a fan of Mary Whitehouse, a member of the Christian Voice bunch of bigots, or write for the Daily Mail), and here are a few examples of theatrical successes we might never have otherwise seen:
Phew
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