Exclusive: John Doyle says theatre should be able to disturb and challenge audiences, and not sanitise difficult themes
The Tony award-winning theatre director John Doyle has warned that trigger warnings before plays risks “mollycoddling” audiences and sanitising theatre.
The Scottish director, who has led four British theatres, said: “Take care of the audience, but the theatre is supposed to make you uncomfortable. It’s supposed to make you fearful.
“The Greeks wrote those plays because they wanted you to look at your inner darkness. If we mollycoddle the audience too much, what’s the point?”
Noting that some universities would not study Shakespeare “because they don’t want to upset students”, Doyle said: “Shakespeare wrote about everything that there is to be about the human condition at its darkest. Incest, murder, regicide, you name it, he wrote about it. But there’ll be nothing left if we make everything ‘nice’. We shouldn’t be afraid of challenging the audience at every opportunity.”
