Guest Lecture at St Mary’s Explores Censorship

Drama students from St Mary’s University College, Twickenham are being given the opportunity to explore censorship in the theatre during a guest lecture on Friday 11^th October. The lecture, which has been organised by Drama St Mary’s, will see Julia Farrington (Head of Arts at the Index on Censorship) speak about her work around Gurpreet Bhatti’s play Behzti, which was cancelled from the Birmingham Rep Theatre in 2004 after protests surrounding controversial scenes in the play. Julia will also talk about her time at the Index on Censorship and the relationship between art and censorship more generally. Drama and Applied Theatre Lecturer Matthew Hahn said, “The 'Theatre & Censorship' lecture is part of the 'Theatre & Society' module that all final year Drama students study. Within the module, they discuss and debate a variety of societal effects on theatre making such as nation, crime, feminism, politics, and censorship amongst other topics as well as how theatre can influence the wider debate. Drama St Mary's believes that it is important their students leave the University College not just as strong theatre makers, but also more aware of the society in which they make theatre.” St Mary’s offers a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, for more information please visit the website or contact Patsy Gilbert on patsy.gilbert@stmarys.ac.uk