Following Arifa Akbar’s article (We go to the theater to feel something – and people do. Trigger warnings don’t stop that, February 22), I attended a performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III in London in 2016. Ralph Fiennes played the titular role and Vanessa Redgrave played Queen Margaret. I loved seeing them both on stage in person.
I was not unfamiliar with the play, having read and seen it performed several times, and the opening scene of this production with the unearthing of the king’s skeleton and twisted spine, a nod to the recent discovery of the remains in a parking lot in Leicestershire, sets the tone of brutality and industrial austerity that suits this contemporary staging of the play.
What I wasn’t prepared for was Richard’s brutal rape, center stage, of the dowager Queen Elizabeth, during their heated argument in act 4, scene four. As a rape survivor, I couldn’t bear to watch or listen; it was brutal, disgusting and shocking, and it ruined the entire production for me. It was unbearable.
I am sure that Mr Fiennes believes that his objection to activating warnings for theater performances is justified; he is an excellent actor whose work is powerful. Perhaps my reaction to his performance was exactly what he intended; If so, he’s made his point. If the theater today seems to require that the direction of ‘He kisses her’ (following line 361) be extended to a realistically simulated rape, then I understand: the theater is no longer a safe place for me, and my sensibilities, to to suspend my thoughts. disbelief. Unless of course I have been given fair warning in advance and take my chances.
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I had a partner with significant trauma. We used trigger warnings to filter entertainment so they would feel comfortable and we wouldn’t accidentally re-trigger the trauma and cause a significant deterioration in their ongoing recovery. To take that away from them would be to continue to traumatize someone who doesn’t deserve it.
I don’t go to the theater to get lectured, get screwed, or otherwise be upset. I don’t pay hard-earned money to be insulted; I go to be entertained. I often make sure to read reviews and Wikipedia pages and enable warnings before going anywhere.
Thanks to the list of plays and playwrights provided in some of these articles and commentaries, I can now avoid the articles mentioned. I am very grateful to them for this service.
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