FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| THEATRE The Censor There isn't much question about what people will find shocking in Anthony Neilson's British hit play, The Censor. If there's anything that makes an uptight North American audience get up and walk out of the theatre, it's that reliable old standby - sex. The Censor tells the story of a pornographic filmmaker, Fontaine, and her efforts to convince the board of classification (and the censor of the title) to give her film a rating and send it into theatres. Along the way, the two become involved, despite the censor's wife in the background. Heather Kennedy plays the beleaguered wife in the Canadian premiere of the play at Ground Zero, and says that it is the way in which the characters discuss sex that some will find disturbing. "It's the openness with which (Fontaine) talks about sexuality, her unabashedness, her boldness," Kennedy says. "She comes at the sexuality in a very artistic manner - very open... whereas he's very clinical about it. That's his job - to describe body parts and what people do with them." Over the course of the play, however, the two come to a common understanding, and the audience may come to re-examine some of their own preconceived notions about pornography. "I think everyone of a mature age has been subjected to porn on some level," Kennedy says, "whether it be the hardcore porno that you would rent at an adult video store, or something like Natural Born Killers. We know how women talk in films like that, and somehow you think that because she makes films like that, she would have the same kind of 'potty mouth' - but she doesn't. She views her porn as a love story, which eventually, in (the censor's) mind, it becomes." Director and Ground Zero co-artistic director Ryan Luhning agrees that the presentation of sexuality in the play will offend some. "I think we as human beings, as society, tend to hide our sexuality, and we don't discuss it," he says. "We talk about things in locker rooms or something like that... which is a 'dirty' way of talking about sexuality. This play just opens up and is honest about it." Luhning realizes the audience that is likely to find themselves in the New Dance/Theatre next week will be one that is reasonably comfortable with sexual themes. However, he adds that even a liberal-minded crowd will be challenged by the play. "There is some extreme sexual content that is discussed and actually shown, in a very tasteful, beautiful manner, that is going to unsettle some people," he predicts. Some will find the play shocking enough that the love story will fall by the wayside, Luhning concedes, but he says a dramatic reaction is a sign that an audience has been changed by the play. "As soon as you tap into something in someone's psyche that they are personally not comfortable about, they're going to be the first ones to put their guard up and rebel against it," he says. "It's because they're seeing a reflection of themselves on stage that they don't like - that they know is a part of them, but they're not going to admit to." |