Stage censorship

The Licensing Act of 1737 was to have huge impact on the development of theatre in Britain. The Act restricted the production of plays to the two patent theatres and tightened up the censorship of drama, stating that the Lord Chamberlain with his Examiners of Plays must vet any script before a performance was allowed.

  • Portrait of Henry Fielding

    Portrait of Henry Fielding, engraved print, mid 18th century

    Henry Fielding is remembered as one of the founders of the English novel, for works such as Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews. He was also a prolific writer of satirical plays. Born in 1707, the educated son of a gentleman, Fielding had to give up his university studies in order to earn a living. Over the next few years he wrote 25 comic plays which satirised the government, society and artistic pretension. He also became co-manager of the unlicensed Haymarket Theatre which was known as a venue for unconventional pieces. The Prime Minister of the day, Robert Walpole, became so enraged with Fielding that in 1737 he introduced censorship by the Lord Chamberlain and Fielding was forced to find another career. Fielding trained as a barrister but began writing novels. As with his plays, his writing was comic, but its criticism of society and human arrogance had a serious purpose. He was not again involved in play production until 1748 when he briefly ran a puppet theatre which satirised public figures.

  • Fan dancing at the Windmill Theatre

    Fan dancing at the Windmill Theatre, London, mid 20th century

    The Windmill was famous as the only theatre in London where nudity was permitted. Even there it was only allowed if the girls did not move. This gave rise to the saying, 'If it moves, it's rude'. The only nudes who did move were the fan dancers, and the skill of their dance was to keep themselves covered by manipulation of the huge ostrich feather fans as they danced. It was all very restrained by today's standards and fathers would often take their teenage sons to the shows as an introduction to sex. Not all the girls were showgirls or nudes. Between the nude scenes there were small ballets, sketches and stand-up comedians. Few comics lasted more than a few weeks as audiences were only interested in the girls. Between the shows, there was an unseemly scramble over the seats as audiences in the back rows tried to get the coveted front seats as quickly as possible.

  • Licence for The Hue and Cry

    Licence for The Hue and Cry, ink on paper, 1791

    The 1737 Licensing Act required plays to be licensed subject to the approval of the Lord Chamberlain's Office. Plays had been subject to government approval since Shakespeare’s day, but rules for the minor theatres had become lax in the early 18th century and the government found itself regularly ridiculed in political satires. The 1737 Act set strict restrictions on what could be performed. This is an official licence signed by the then Lord Chamberlain, Lord Salisbury, granting permission for The Hue and Cry to be performed at Drury Lane providing that no changes were made to the approved text. Many such hand written legal documents dealing with the leasing and licensing of theatres are held in the National Archives at Kew.

  • Letter from Lord Chamberlain's Office regarding cuts to Edward Bond's play Saved

    Letter from Lord Chamberlain's Office regarding cuts to Edward Bond's play Saved, July 1965

    Saved by Edward Bond was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre in 1964. It is set in the cramped, urban environment of South London and shows the effects of an act of violence (the stoning of a baby) on a group of ordinary people. All plays at that time still had to be checked and sanctioned by the Lord Chamberlain. William Gaskill, the director at the Royal Court, knew from the outset that Bond’s play would not be passed and recommended that Bond cut out the swear words and sexual references in the hope that the violent scenes, which were integral to the play, would be allowed. Bond refused to do this, or to cut two scenes which the Lord Chamberlain refused to permit. Eventually, the play was produced as a club performance for members of the English Stage Society in 1965. (Private clubs were not subject to censorship laws as technically they did not give public performances.) The outraged response to the play brought the arguments about censorship to a head, and in 1968 the law was changed and censorship ceased.

  • Letter from Edward Bond

    Letter from Edward Bond, November 1965

    Saved by Edward Bond was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre in 1964. It is set in the cramped, urban environment of South London and shows the effects of an act of violence (the stoning of a baby) on a group of ordinary people. All plays at that time still had to be checked and sanctioned by the Lord Chamberlain. William Gaskill, the director at the Royal Court, knew from the outset that Bond’s play would not be passed and recommended that Bond cut out the swear words and sexual references in the hope that the violent scenes, which were integral to the play, would be allowed. Bond refused to do this, or to cut two scenes which the Lord Chamberlain refused to permit. Eventually, the play was produced as a club performance for members of the English Stage Society in 1965. (Private clubs were not subject to censorship laws as technically they did not give public performances.) The outraged response to the play brought the arguments about censorship to a head, and in 1968 the law was changed and censorship ceased.

  • Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw

    Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw, Joan Plowright and Mark Payton, Royal National Theatre, London, 1985

    George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs Warren's Profession, written in 1894, was banned by the British censor for over 30 years because the profession referred to in the title is prostitution. In order to evade the censors' ban, the play was performed in private clubs or ‘club’ theatres. The first production was in 1902 in the theatre of the New Lyric Club, London. The play wasn’t licensed for public performance until 1925. The wealthy Mrs Warren and her feminist daughter, Vivie, who has recently finished college, are reunited. Vivie wants to know why her mother is so secretive about her business life, and is shocked to learn that her mother has earned her fortune running a string of brothels across Europe. Shaw wrote,' Mrs. Warren's Profession was written to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution’. This is Joan Plowright in the title role, with Mark Payton, in the National Theatre's 1985 production.

Tags: