Trigger Warnings and the Theatre!

This blog is something of a rant.

A few days ago, I read an article in The Independent about Dame Judi Dench and her reaction to trigger warnings in the theatre - an interview originally given to the Radio Times. 

It struck a chord because I recently got very exasperated when reading the excessive trigger warnings for an online Globe production of Macbeth.  It was unnecessary. I was going to watch Macbeth with our 15-year-old (it’s her GCSE Shakespeare text), and I knew exactly what to expect from a Shakespearean tragedy.

Dame Judi believes that the audience should be surprised by drama and given the opportunity to interpret a play for themselves.  When told about the content guidance warning given at The Globe Theatre for a production of Anthony and Cleopatra, “depictions of suicide, scenes of violence and war,” her response was “My God, it must be a pretty long trigger warning before King Lear or Titus Andronicus.”

I’m inclined to agree with her.  Like Dame Judi, I can see why trigger warnings exist, but as she says, “if you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theatre, because you could be very shocked.”  Surely we are capable of doing our own research and making the decision to see a production or not.  Have we become so infantilised that we cannot make decisions for ourselves?  Do we need to be told that there is murder and bloodshed in Macbeth or that there are depictions of suicide in Romeo and Juliet?  Everyone knows this, and if you don’t, some simple research on the plot will tell you if it’s something you would like to see. 

Are we to believe that people decide to attend a play or not, based on the trigger warning that accompanies the production?  Do we not have the ability to make decisions ourselves?  To think logically.  Who decided that we need trigger warnings?  Where is the adventure?  What happened to going to the theatre to be uplifted, shocked, disturbed, made to think?

We all have free will.  We can choose to continue scrolling if something on social media offends us.  We can change channels on the TV if the content of a programme disturbs us.  We don’t have to read that book or listen to that comedian if we find the material offensive. 

I believe it’s time to embrace the arts in all their glory – dark, sad, murderous, bloody, uplifting, funny – to be inspired, moved, shocked on our own terms.  To base decisions on our own research and knowledge of what we can handle, not on ridiculous warnings that state the obvious.

Rant over!