Anger As Shakespeare Plays Infested With Trigger Warnings

Productions of Shakespeare plays in the UK have had “content guidance” trigger warnings placed on them, prompting a backlash.

Recent productions of Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London have seen audiences being forewarned that the plays contain “depictions of suicide, and scenes of violence and war.”

The warnings have also prepared audiences to expect “misogynoir references,” a made up mashed together term for misogyny and discrimination against black people.

Theatre goers have blasted the move as ridiculous.

Actors Ralph Fiennes and Ian McKellen both recently slammed the trend, noting that people shouldn’t be mollycoddled when it comes to theatre.

Fiennes recently noted “There are very disturbing scenes in Macbeth, terrible murders and things, but I think the impact of theatre is that you should be shocked and you should be disturbed. I don’t think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young we never had trigger warnings before a show.”

The actor added, “Shakespeare’s plays are full of murder and full of horror, and as a young student and lover of the threatre I never experienced trigger warnings like oh by the way in King Lea Gloucester’s going to have his eyes pulled out.”

“Theatre needs to be alive and in the present. It’s the shock, it’s the unexpected, that’s what makes the theatre so exciting,” Fiennes urged.

McKellen noted that “Outside theatres and in the lobbies… the audience is warned ‘there is a loud noise and at one point, there are flashing lights, there is reference to smoking, there is reference to bereavement.'”

“I think it’s ludicrous, myself, yes, absolutely. I quite like to be surprised by loud noises and outrageous behaviour on stage,” McKellen added.

It has to be asked, who the hell is going to see Macbeth or Romeo & Julliet looking for a nice evening of safe light entertainment?

Meanwhile, as we highlighted earlier, a study funded by the British government to the tune of almost a million pounds has claimed that Shakespeare, has been disproportionately represented as one of foremost the literary icons in history, and has in fact enabled “white, able-bodied, heterosexual, cisgender male narratives” to dominate theatre.

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