Taboo, Transgression, and (Self-)Censorship in Twentieth-Century British Theater

Abstract

In The Cambridge History of British Theatre, Baz Kershaw recently described the secondhalf of the twentieth century as probably the most consistently volatile phase in the history of the British stage (cf. 3: 291). Admitting that the story of postwar volatility is only one of many potential narratives covering that time period, Kershaw identifies four major factors that lend shape to his own account: the changing structure of the theater estate, innovations in production, the impact of technology, and changes in the role and structure of the theater audience (cf. 3: 2920. And while, as Christopher Innes points out, the developments in British theater of the twentieth century cannot be adequately compartmentalized into distinct units—indeed, that twentieth-century British drama is defined by a “lack of clear temporal signposts” (3: 7) that would allow for such an approach—a topical reflection on taboos, their transgression and censorship in British theater can hardly avoid periodizing the twentieth century along the fault line of the Theatres Act of 1968.