Actor Simon Callow has scorned the trend of attaching trigger warnings to theatre as completely failing to grasp the purpose of the arts.
Debate around trigger warnings has been stirred by Chichester Festival Theatre’s to warn their Sound of Music audience members that they might find depictions of Nazi Germany “distressing”.
In a letter published in the Times, Callow wrote: “There is a fundamental failure to grasp what the theatre is: not a model for behaviour but a crucible in which we look at what it is to be human.”
The Olivier Award winner described theatre as “not a pulpit, but a gymnasium of the imagination”.
Simon Callow on stage at the Savoy Theatre playing Oscar Wilde in the play The Importance of Being Oscar Wilde
PA
The British actor continued: “It is precisely, and by definition, a safe space because it is perfectly clear what happens on the stage is performed by actors, on a set, very visibly lit by artificial light, and that the whole thing is an act of imagination.
“Hamlet will not die but get up to take a curtain call; likewise, Falstaff will not succumb to diabetes but will take the padding off.”
The actor, well known for starring in A Room with a View and Four Weddings and a Funeral, was responding directly to The Sound of Music case.
As final preparations got underway for The Sound of Music's opening night next week, the Chichester Festival Theatre cautioned would-be ticket holders that they “may find certain themes distressing”.
Such themes include depictions of Nazi Germany and the annexation of Austria.
Actors John Hannah (left) and Simon Callow at London's Southbank, the same location as the Charles and Carrie 'I love you' scene from the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral
PA
Originally based on the 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp, The Sound of Music story was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1959 by Jewish playwrights Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
The production found its way onto the silver screen in 1965, in a film directed by Robert Wise and starring Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
Writer and broadcaster Rabbi Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue in Berkshire, described the trigger warnings as "incredibly patronising" and a "disservice" to viewers.
He said: “They are almost warning them off from learning about things that may be unpleasant but are certainly real and make up the world.
“They also seem to be incredibly patronising and sort of dismissing the resilience that people have.
George von Trapp's character was written as vehemently anti-Nazi20th Century Studios/Sound of Music“There are many terrible tragedies, but human endurance and resilience is actually quite remarkable.”
The Sound of Music follows the story of Maria, a novice Austrian nun, who is sent in 1938 to be a governess for the seven children of retired naval officer George von Trapp.
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, von Trapp is given notice of conscription into the German navy, but instead takes his family across the border into Switzerland, fleeing the Nazis in Austria.
A spokesperson for the theatre said: “We include general guidance on content and themes (not trigger warnings) on our website for all our productions, for audiences and, in the case of The Sound of Music, particularly for parents to make informed decisions about age suitability.
Gina Beck as Maria“It's for audiences to choose whether to open and read these or not, but we know from feedback that many people do find them helpful.
“Of course theatre can and should be challenging; but, for a family musical, we're giving honest and factual guidance, for those who require it, that the show contains serious themes as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's glorious songs and uplifting story.”
Chichester Festival Theatre’s decision adds to a long and growing list of cultural institutions retroactively issuing trigger warnings on classic works.
The literary works of William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, PG Wodehouse, Ian Fleming Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie have all been hacked at with the cancel culture axe of late.
