Charlot Zahra
Defying the ban issued by the Board of Film and Stage Classification chaired by Teresa Friggieri, the producers of the play Stitching said yesterday they will be staging the play “in a matter of days”.
“We are exploring a number of venues, however not all venues are suitable for an intimate play like Stitching,” said director Chris Gatt during a highly-charged press conference at the Radisson hotel in St Julian’s.
Gatt explained that if the play’s performance was stopped, the company would explore “all legal means possible” to defend its right to freedom of expression.
If the play is not stopped, then the police had two possibilities of taking action against the play. “If they present the charges under the Film and Stage Classification legislation, then we would risk a fine of €11.65 for a first-time offence.
“However, if they prosecute us under the Criminal Code for violating obscenity and public decency, we risk a prison term of between 1 to 6 months,” Gatt explained.
“I will not go abroad like Mario Azzopardi had to do 30 years ago when he staged Il-Gagga,” Gatt insisted. “I will not go abroad like Jane Marshall who had to leave for Australia after taking part in Il-Madonna tac-Coqqa”.
A year ago, the Stage and Film Classification Board chaired by Theresa Friggieri had already threatened to censor another Unifaun production, Mercury Fair.
Eventually, the play was staged after it was issued an ‘18’ classification.
In her certificate, which was delivered by hand at 1pm on 30 January 2009, a few hours after a report about the banning of the play had appeared in the press, Friggieri claimed that the play had to be banned for “blasphemy against the State religion”, “obscene contempt of the victims of Auschwitz”, and “an encyclopaedic review of dangerous sexual perversions leading to sexual servitude”.
She also claimed that in the play there was “a eulogy to the child murders Fred and Rosemary West” and a reference to “the abduction, sexual assault and murder of children”.
Incidentally, Friggieri had not even signed the letter and signed it only when she delivered at Unifaun Director Adrian Buckle’s mother’s house. “She told my mother that she had written it at school in a rush in the morning,” Buckle added.
However, Gatt said that the so-called blasphemy only amounted to the words “Jesus Fucking Christ” uttered by one of the characters.
“At the same time, the same Stage and Film classification Board allowed a film at the cinemas with acts of masturbation in a church by a character who thinks he is Jesus Christ.
“The Stage and Film Classification Board is adopting two weights and two measures when classifying films and when classifying theatre scripts.
“We are calling on the members of the Classification Board to resign because they are interpreting the law inconsistently,” Gatt insisted.
He accsused Friggieri of taking the whole play out of context. “The play is about a couple that deals with the loss of a child, not some sexual perversion. I wished that was the case!” Gatt quipped sarcastically.
The play is about a couple in crisis coming to terms with a loss, and deals with themes that include death and abortion.
The directors of Unifaun, the theatre company that over the past few years has earned a reputation for staging shocking plays that reflect contemporary society, have already filed a judicial protest against Theresa Friggieri as the Chairperson of the Stage and Film Classification board, the Police Commissioner and the Attorney-General for violating their fundamental human rights for freedom of expression over the ban of the play.
Until now, the authorities had not replied to Unifaun’s judicial protest, ten days after it was filed. “Usually when a judicial protest is filed against the Government, the authorities are generally quick in responding to such a judicial protest.
“However until now, the authorities have remained silent,” Gatt insisted.
He said that the producers of the play were ready to go even to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to protest against the violation of their freedom of expression by the ban.
“The European Court of Human Rights has consistently defended the right of people to express their views, even when they are shocking or offending,” Gatt added.
Moreover, Anthony Nielsen, the author of the play, has launched a petition with the theatre industry in London to wage pressure on the Maltese Government to divest the Board of Film and Stage Classification of the power to censor plays.
Meanwhile in a press statement issued later, Friggieri said: “The play cannot be staged. The producers know they are breaking the law, but that’s their business. ... The play is an insult against human dignity from beginning to end ... The board’s remit is not to defend the law. Our obligation is to follow it.”
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