Stage News

A campaign group got itself offended by an Edinburgh Fringe show titled Tea Ceremony , in which a white male actor appears as a geisha.

The group British East and South East Asians working in the Theatre and Screen industry (BEATS) took issue with Tea Ceremony, which sees Marios Ioannou wear white face paint, which it claimed to be extremely triggering and traumatic to those who bear historical weight of historical abuses.

BEATS said that:

While no one wants rules at the Fringe . ..[BUT]... surely there can be guidelines to prevent what we can only describe as publicly licensed racism on stage.

However, the show's producer has rejected any accusations of racism in the show and Ioannou, a Cypriot performer, also insisted the claims were unfair. He said:

I am in contact with the Japanese people who worked on this performance, because they did work on it and they didn't believe it was inappropriate. We are working on an answer from all of us.

A comedian has been cancelled by an Edinburgh Fringe venue after he got his penis out on stage and made jokes about disallowed topics on his opening night.

Jerry Sadowitz was scheduled to play at The not very pleasant Pleasance at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Friday and Saturday.

The censorial venue confirmed that it had been pulled because his material does not align with our values.

One female audience member told the Scottish Sun that Sadowitz  called Rishi Sunak a 'paki' and said the economy was awful because it is run by blacks and women.

The event listing carried a warning which read:

This show contains strong language and themes some may find distressing.

Revealing the decision, Sadowitz said on Twitter:

Did a show last night, 75 mins, thought it went well. Didn't see any walkouts. Today I'm told my show's been cancelled. Great stuff. I'm truly sorry for everyone who travelled to see the show tonight.

Offsite Comment: They finally came for Jerry Sadowitz

15th August 2022. See article from spiked-online.com by Simon Evans

Comedians dismiss cancel culture at their peril.

Rajan Zed is a perennial whinger who complains about hindu imagery being used outside of a religious context.

He has taken offence at the ballet La Bayadère for its irreverent treatment of religion in general and hinduism in particular.

The ballet seems to be on world tour with Zed whingeing at each venue that stages it. Zed spoke of performances by the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet claiming that:

This deeply problematic ballet was just a blatant belittling of a rich civilization and exhibited 19th-century orientalist attitudes.

Zed further said that Norwegian National Ballet should have shown some maturity before selecting a ballet like La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) displaying Western caricaturing of Eastern heritage and abetting ethnic stereotyping. He added:

It was highly irresponsible for Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, whose strategy stated204We will create and present operas and ballets which make an impact; to choose such a ballet which had been blamed for patronizing flawed mishmash of orientalist stereotypes, dehumanizing cultural portrayal and misrepresentation, offensive and degrading elements, needless appropriation of cultural motifs, essentialism, shallow exoticism, caricaturing, etc. Norwegian National Opera & Ballet could do better than this to serve its diverse stakeholders.

The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality and its Minister Anette Trettebergstuen should also take its areas of responsibility204culture, equality and discrimination204more seriously, and have better understanding of the feelings of others to do the job more effectively.

Now Norwegian National Opera & Ballet has refused to cancel its production and Zed is not happy:

We plan to appeal to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre as it is simply unfair, unethical and inappropriate to spend taxpayer's money on caricaturing other culture.