Exhibition reveals official fears over gay characters in the theatre
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog
A new exhibition will be pay tribute to the postwar period of transformation in theatre which saw writers ‘coming to terms with life.’
The Golden Generation will draw on the British Library’s collection of theatrical manuscripts, letters, photographs and unique oral history recordings to explore the vibrancy of British theatre following the end of the Second World War.
Up until 1968 the Lord Chamberlain was responsible for licensing plays.
The exhibition shows that the portrayal of homosexual characters was the subject that most worried the Lord Chamberlain in the post-war years.
Attempts to prohibit representations of homosexuality led some writers to instinctual self-censorship - as can be seen in a handwritten script of gay playwright Terrence Rattigan’s Separate Tables, where Rattigan is forced to change a character accused of importuning other men to a man accused of ‘nudging women in a cinema’.
Under pressure to re-think his policy, the Lord Chamberlain sent a number of letters to ‘wise and responsible men and women’ (including Laurence Olivier) to canvas opinions.
Exhibition reveals official fears over gay characters in the theatre
PinkNews.co.uk, UK
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