Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.

Yesterday, in a letter sent to the City of Lansing, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the ACLU Lansing Branch, advised city officials to reconsider their decision to censor a Shakespeare in the park production.

Todd Heywood, a Lansing resident, and his theater company, Sunsets with Shakespeare, requested permission to perform a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" at a Lansing city park. Their request was denied by the Department of Parks and Recreation citing the reason that the stage blood might be offensive to viewers.

While "Titus Andronicus" is definitely one of Shakespeare's darkest works, with 35 people dying in the play and at least 10 major murders committed in view of the audience, it is less violent than his other works. There is more death portrayed in Richard III. Over the years, many literary critics have given "Titus Andronicus" a bad reputation because its spicy mixture of black humor and bloody revenge offended their sensibilities. In Shakespeare's time, the play was a big hit, with an effect on audiences similar to modern films such as Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, and Silence of the Lambs, where one moment the audience is amused and the next moment horrified.

While "Titus Andronicus" contains violent scenes, Sunsets with Shakespeare's updated production hopes to use the play to make a political statement about our society's acceptance and glorification of violence in entertainment and other media. They have taken steps to ensure that audience members are aware of the production's violent content before coming to the show. All advance publicity has contained a notice that the production is rated "PG-13". In addition, an announcement about the violent content will be made before the show. They have also offered to have the play produced in a secluded part of a Lansing park, post additional signs warning of the "PG-13" nature and host "talk-backs" following the Lansing shows.

"It is disappointing that a city such as Lansing cannot see the benefit of using the arts to create dialogue about social issues such as violence," Heywood added.

Update 8/15:

According to Sunsets with Shakespeare's blog, the censorship conflict has been resolved. "The Titus Andronicus Experience" will take place at Valley Court Park in East Lansing August 21-24 and August 26-29 at 6:30 PM. Lansing performances are scheduled to take place in Washington Park on August 31 and September 1 at 6:30 PM.


Posted at Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Email One Angry Patriot
0 comments