W arning: the following article may contain distressing words. Because it’s about trigger warnings at the theatre, especially contemporary productions of Shakespeare. Avert your eyes now if you must.
Everybody ready? Right – read on, Macduff...
Shakespeare, besides being widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, was also a fatphobe. We know this because the Royal Shakespeare Company has slapped a trigger warning on its new production of The Merry Wives of Windsor , where audiences are advised before curtain-up about the bodyshaming of the portly comic creation, Sir John Falstaff. For this, the RSC has been roundly criticised – but saying as much would probably be deemed fatphobic.
Asked for comment by a Sunday newspaper, acclaimed Shakespearean Dame Janet Suzman said: “This fashion for trigger warnings, as if an audience were as helpless as a tiny child, is both insulting and silly. Who is such an idiot that they would pay good money to go to a Shakespeare play – repeat: play! – and expect to be left unmoved?” Suzman is but the latest Bardolater to join the devilish holy fray against the infantilising practice. Even the RSC’s former head, Gregory Doran, has railed against it, saying: “Don’t come if you are worried.
If you are anxious, stay away.” In February, Ralph Fiennes said it was time to scrap trigger warnings in theatres so that audiences can engage more fully with productions and be “shocked and disturbed” by violent or s.