Comments on: Guest post by Adrian Buckle, on the end of theatre classification and censorship

By: Adrian Buckle

Adrian Buckle — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:56:39 +0000

In reply to Patrik. To be honest, Patrick, I believe that the classification SHOULD be a mere recommendation.

By: ciccio

ciccio — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:46:27 +0000

Well done, Adrian.

So it is not necessary to threaten to topple the government to actually get results, right?

By: Sandro

Sandro — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:32:22 +0000

A very objective article indeed. We have watched most of the plays put up by Unifaun and found them to be entertaining and thought-provoking. The genres they pick are challenging and not commonly tackled in the local theatre scene.

It was really sad and pathetic that outdated censorship laws were applied to ban Stitching.

The same had happened years ago at The Manoel with The Duchess of Malfi, a play written hundreds of years ago, where a key scene had to be omitted for the green light to be given to the producers.

Adrian is right to argue that we should not turn this into a partisan issue.

This is a courageous step in the right direction, a nation’s coming of age, where we are finally deemed mature and sensible enough to decide for ourselves what is acceptable for us to ‘consume’ and what is not.

Let’s not turn this into petty, partisan, insular and close minded political sniping, so very typical of us.

By: Edward Caruana Galizia

Edward Caruana Galizia — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:21:39 +0000

Go, Adrian!

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:48:24 +0000

Thumbs up, everyone, especially for finally disbanding the defunct censorship board. Now can we finally have a look at Lino Cassar’s secret stash?

By: yeled shovav

yeled shovav — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:15:54 +0000

“People are saying how much they fought against censorship and how they feel they are being taken for a ride. With all due respect, I am the one who fought this particular thing, or rather, me and my friends Chris Gatt, Pia Zammit and Mikhail Basmadjian, with the help of our legal adviser Michael Zammit Maempel.”

Ah, Malta.

By: Adrian Buckle

Adrian Buckle — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:47:11 +0000

As always, I find that after I start mentioning names, I am prone to leaving people out. My legal team consisted not only of Dr Michael Zammit Maempel but also of Professor Ian Refalo and Dr Sarah Grima. The team worked as a unit and I am very happy with their work.

By: Matt B

Matt B — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:35:36 +0000

A very rational post by Mr. Buckle.

I, for one, look forward to seeing the end of Theresa Friggieri whining away about how certain plays are inappropriate for viewing.

When she lectured me at sixth form college, she always struck me as someone completely detached from reality.

By: Patrik

Patrik — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:56:56 +0000

Great and interesting guest post.

The whole Stitching saga is recent enough to still make one quite upset and myself and many like me still commend the effort, time and money you have put into this fight.

While I agree in large with the new system, I would challenge the point of having a classification system which is not centrally governed.

For starters, I’m not certain a classification system at all is needed, but if it were I think it’s vital that productions are classified consistently, hence the classifications can’t be done just from the creators’ point of view.

A classification for one production should be done on equal standing as the classification on a different production. Otherwise it’s a mere recommendation.

Classifications for adults seems like a complete waste of time and money, in my opinion, but I think there is an argument in favour of them in relation to the younger audience.

That said, I’m quite sick of parents dropping their responsibility on society instead of simply exerting a fair bit of insight and control in their children’s lives.