The children stamp out another artistic endeavor.
A forthcoming production of Into the Woods at The Old Vic was cancelled after staff expressed discomfort at Terry Gilliam’s involvement, reports claim.
The former Monty Python star had been due to direct a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical at the London theatre in April alongside Leah Hausman.
On Thursday (28 October), it was announced that the production would no longer be taking place, with no reason for the cancellation given.
However, The Stage now reports that The Old Vic pulled the production following unrest from members of staff who felt that Gilliam’s comments to the press regarding the #MeToo movement, trans rights and racism were at odds with the theatre’s ethos.
Well ideological purity is an obvious must for co-directing a play.
Sondheim is said to have initially approved the production after being impressed by Gilliam’s ideas for the production.
Oh well who cares what he thinks.
Comments
11 responses to “Sondheim and Gilliam not pure enough”
The failure of management on this is astounding, because there’s definitely an audience out there for this production and I can absolutely see Gilliam as a director who would do Sondheim’s play magnificently. There are other venues though, if not as famed as The Old Vic, hopefully one that has a manager who can stand up to the objecting staff and tell them where to get off if necessary.
One recalls, lo these many years ago, when one of the conservative causes celebres was allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control or abortifacients, citing their moral qualms or religious beliefs. One recalls that the progressive answer to this was that these pharmacists were perfectly allowed to hold whichever beliefs they cherished, but if they refused to fulfil the ambit of their duties, they should expect to be dismissed from their jobs with cause and were free to seek out a different line of employment.
One wonders, in light of this, where said progressives fall upon the issue of the day.
Well, you see Der Durchwanderer, it’s totally different because – Oh look a squirrel!
Is it a male squirrel, a female square, or a non gendered squirrel?
we really are heading straight for Maoist Self Criticism Sessions aren’t we? The Cultural Revolutionaries had an equally fervid belief in their position on the right side of history and the bourgeoisie backsliders certainly DID need to be PUNISHED, no?
trans rights and racism
Why can’t this stuff ever be reported honestly?
I imagine they’re referring to the time he said he identified as a black lesbian, to show the absurdity of identifying as things we’re not.
That’s not in any sense a ‘comment on trans rights and racism’.
Maybe The Old Vic is still trying to atone for having once had Kevin Spacey as its artistic director.
Get some sleep!
On my offhand recollection, Gilliam’s curmudgeonly performance—and I only recall him being dismissive about #metoo, not race or trans orthodoxy—suggested that working with him might be uncomfortable for women.
So, yeah, I went and poked around. The big bit is Terry Gilliam saying he’s “a black lesbian in transition” in order to disparage the #MeToo movement, specifically relating to Weinstein’s issues.
It wasn’t racist OR transphobic OR homophobic. It was pure, unadulterated misogynistic sexism. But that, of course, would never be enough for him to be face consequences. It had to be made about trans rights, first, because those are the only rights that really matter.
Interesting. Won’t somebody please think of the Weinstein!
My reading of Gilliam’s comment is that it was not specifically directed at MeToo, but at other comments that a comedy group (like Monty Python) would need to be more “diverse”:
Really, I don’t find a problem in Gilliam’s sarcastic response. Taking it out of context, and deciding that it was specifically about MeToo, seems deliberate misconstruction.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/04/terry-gilliam-on-diversity-bbc-monty-python-black-lesbian