Censored
117 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago -Censored is a podcast for the filthy minded. Explore banned films, books, magazines, newspapers and cinema like a smut-obsessed censor.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
A Celluloid Nasty: Peeping Tom (1960)
April 18, 2024 03:00 - 37 minutes - 18.6 MBOne of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films and guess what? We agree, it’s brilliant. Contemporary audiences detested it, preferring to ignore why they derived pleasure from realistic, filmed torture and terror. This film has everything from Freudianism to a Hitchcock doppelganger. Cuts made by censors might be lost forever but it still shocks and gives us a perfect amount of ick. Peeping Tom (1960) dir. Michael Powell, starring Karlheinz Boehm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer Psycho (1960) dir. ...
Anti-natal: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
April 04, 2024 03:00 - 38 minutes - 36.6 MBA horror fan (Lloyd Meadhbh) and not-a-horror fan (Aoife) agree that this unexpectedly feminist film did not deserve to be banned twice in Ireland. Caveat: Roman Polanski directed it. Rosemary’s Baby (dir. Roman Polanski) starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes Merch! Support us on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Full Gere: American Gigolo (1980)
March 21, 2024 04:00 - 38 minutes - 19.3 MBTies, suits and sex - Paul Schrader's exploration of consumerism and Richard Gere's hotness was pruned of bad language and "sex scenes" by the Irish censor. American Gigolo (1980, dir. Paul Schrader) starring Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Bill Duke, Hector Elizondo You Must Remember This on American Gigolo More on Aoife's Gere-athon for Patreon supporters Merch! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Video Nasties (Part Two)
March 07, 2024 04:00 - 31 minutes - 32.1 MBWhat’s the worst celluloid crime committed in The Evil Dead: excessive violence or Bruce Campbell’s fringe? Lloyd Meadhbh (a fan) tries to persuade Aoife (a sceptic) to embrace this video-nasty classic. Also, listener correspondence on The Rocky Road to Dublin. The Evil Dead (dir. Sam Rami, 1981) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_8_nm_0_q_evil%2520dead Evil Dead II (dir. Sam Rami, 1987) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_7_tt_8_nm_0_q_evil%2520de...
Video Nasties (Part One)
February 22, 2024 04:00 - 35 minutes - 37.3 MBLloyd Meadhbh rewinds the tape back to the 1980s, when a new film medium caused a new (ish) moral panic. Support us Merch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Rocky Road to Dublin (1967)
February 01, 2024 09:30 - 41 minutes - 20.7 MBHow revolutionary was Ireland anyway? Journalist and director Peter Lennon asked how a nation birthed by rebels seemed to be run by Catholic priests. His caustic script allied to Raoul Coutard's captivating cinematography made for a unique documentary. We discuss odd accents, cheeky children and creepy priests. The Rocky Road to Dublin (1967, re-released by IFI in 2004) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66JpC_T3wFM Merch Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Censorship by Sharpie
December 28, 2023 04:00 - 32 minutes - 15.9 MBDid you know DIY censorship was practiced by those outside the film censor’s office. Even after official censors vetted publicity material, some film posters showed too much skin, especially male arms and legs. Liam O’Leary collected this material Kevin Rockett Irish Film Censorship: a cultural journey from silent cinema to internet pornography (2004) Doctored film posters can be seen here Original, undoctored film posters: The Virgin Soldiers (1969) https://www.imdb.com/t...
The Devils is not a film for everyone
December 14, 2023 10:58 - 46 minutes - 46.4 MBKen Russell's The Devils is definitely a film for us. Satanism, orgies, exorcisms - what's not to love? And it's a complicated censorship story of different cuts for different censors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Are you trying to censor me, Mrs Robinson?
November 30, 2023 04:00 - 37 minutes - 18.6 MBBanned, appealed, cut eleven times: The Graduate (1967) had a torrid time in Ireland. What narrative were Irish audiences allowed to see? And, Mrs Robinson, we stan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
(Un) Willkommen to the Cabaret
November 16, 2023 04:00 - 36 minutes - 35.1 MBA film beloved by our hosts that proved too much for the Irish censor. Was it Liza Minnelli's (as Sally Bowles) legs or men fancying other men? The answer is quite surprising. But then, so is writing a musical about genocide. Cabaret (dir. Bob Fosse, 1972) Merch! Help keep the show on the road (Over 18s only because 'smut' is censored) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ulster Says No, Absolutely Not
November 02, 2023 04:00 - 50 minutes - 24.7 MBLloyd Meadhbh explains Northern Ireland’s special censorship sauce to Aoife. There’s cross-border agreement, even more censors than usual and a bit of flogging. Films: Ulster the Garden of Eden (1930), tourist authority of NI Frankenstein (1931, dir James Whale) Ourselves Alone (1936, dir Brian Desmond Hurst, Walter Summers) Released in the US as Rivers of Unrest https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028071/ The Informer (1935, dir John Ford) Merch! Support us Hosted on Acas...
Don't mention the war
October 19, 2023 03:00 - 43 minutes - 22.4 MBWar brings propaganda, and that means censorship. What happens if war is denied in favour of an 'Emergency'? We unpick why Betty Grable's legs were withdrawn from Irish cinema screens in 1941. A Yank in the RAF (1941, dir. Henry King) starring Betting Grable, Tyrone Power and John Sutton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
An Underground Film Scene
October 05, 2023 03:00 - 39 minutes - 19.5 MBAoife's working title was 'Wildcard' – we went on a journey through vice-ridden streets (and garages) of Dublin city in 1954. Films: Smart Alec (1951) US 'stag' film starring Candy Barr Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Blasphemy!
September 21, 2023 03:00 - 44 minutes - 22.5 MBHow did the Irish censor feel about Biblical epics? And how could a convent have ‘a sex atmosphere’? Where we discuss Mary Magdalene’s gold bikini and dangerously smouldering Englishmen. But also, Elvis. Films: King of Kings (Cecil B. deMille, 1927) Black Narcissus (Powell and Pressburger, 1947) Flaming Star (Don Siegel, 1960) Support us on patreon Merch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It Girls: Clara Bow and Mae West
September 07, 2023 03:00 - 45 minutes - 22.9 MBWe investigate ‘It’, a type of sex appeal that raised the temperatures of cinema goers and censors in the 1930s. ‘It’ was personified in the screen personas of Clara Bow and Mae West but did you know that tigers and Derry also have ‘It’? ‘It’ (1927) directed by Clarence G Badger and Josef von Sternberg, starring Clara Bow and Antonio Moreno ‘She Done Him Wrong’ (1933) dir. Lowell Sherman, starring Mae West and Cary Grant. ‘I’m No Angel’ (1933) dir. Wesley Ruggless, starring Mae West a...
Caught in the Act
July 16, 2023 03:00 - 45 minutes - 505 MBFilm censorship in Ireland is a hundred years old today. What were Irish cinema goers watching in 1923, and what would the Censor keep them from watching in the future? Find out in this bumper birthday episode. · Discover which elderly TD was the most avid cinema goer in parliament. · Find out why soft carpets were an issue for one Deputy Film Censor. · Learn how the Mothers’ Union compared cinema to demonic possession. · Welcome our new ‘Censorship Bi...
Sadism: Michael Arlen, ‘Hell! Said the Duchess’ (1934)
July 06, 2023 03:00 - 48 minutes - 24.7 MBWhy would Irish censors object to a satire of the English upper-classes? They probably wouldn’t but Arlen wrote something far creepier. With Dr Laura Ludtke. He's merciless on the role of sport in creating Englishman. Aoife Bhreatnach I have to admit, the introduction of Mosley as the Minister of War in a fascist conservative coalition government led by Winston Churchill did throw me for a bit. Laura Ludtke To use the narrator's own terms, there is something damn queer about the case. Lau...
Gritty: Richard Wright 'Black Boy' (1945)
June 22, 2023 03:00 - 29 minutes - 13.9 MBThere’s lots of indecency in this memoir – vile racism, horrific violence – but readers shouldn’t be protected from Wright’s rage and bitterness. On the floor of the US senate, a Theodore Bilbo said "It is the dirtiest, filthiest, lousiest, most obscene piece of writing that I have ever seen in print.” Wright’s memoir is emotionally and narratively like many published in the last 20 years. And the Irish weren’t the only ones who’ve struggled with this book – this text has an epic histor...
Filthy Films: a Teaser
June 16, 2023 03:00 - 10 minutes - 5.12 MBWhat do you do when you’ve read a lot of smutty books? Watch dirty films, of course. This season is about films that annoyed the censors. And, to double your fun, there are now two hosts: Aoife Bhreatnach and Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston. Here’s a taste of what to expect from us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Libellous: what is indecency?
June 08, 2023 03:00 - 26 minutes - 13.2 MBWhen Patrick Mulloy, author of Jackets Green, heard his book was banned he did something unusual – he sued for libel. But why was this censorship trial held in London? This is a true crime special, but with banned books instead of dead bodies. Read about the violent 1920s here https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/ireland-1922/ Síobhra Aiken, Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (2022) Support the show Buy merch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...
Teasing: Mae West 'She Done Him Wrong' (1932)
May 25, 2023 03:00 - 48 minutes - 23.3 MBMae West is remembered for her cracking one-liners but she was a helluva writer too. Guest: Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide. Her sexual persona that she creates in the film She Done Him Wrong means the Irish censors interpret this book as essentially indecent. Aoife Bhreatnach One of the things West seems to thinking about in the novel is: how do you replace that immediate kind of visual vivid iconography with a kind of a linguistic equivalent? Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide It’s really quite a vivid ...
Radical: Ethel Mannin 'Confessions and Impressions' (1930)
May 11, 2023 03:00 - 33 minutes - 16.7 MBA prolific novelist and memoirist, Ethel Mannin cleverly smuggled lots of controversial ideas into this best-selling autobiography. Freud’s influence on Mannin is clear at various points in the book because she is deeply interested in childhood as a political and cultural idea. Her chapters on schooling are very focused on telling readers about the vulnerability of children to scolding, humiliation and physical violence. She told her school teacher that her flag was the red flag – an ince...
Sensational: Roberta Cowell's Story, by herself (1954)
April 27, 2023 03:00 - 23 minutes - 11.2 MBWritten by a woman (and her ghost writer) hiding in an Italian villa to escape the paparazzi, this is a short, sometimes shocking memoir. This is a type of celebrity memoir, a text written by someone in the eye of a media storm. The relationship between homosexuality and heterosexuality creates a lot of anxiety for Roberta. What really jars with me, a reader in 2023, is the biological argument Roberta makes. Fancy supporting the show? Do so here https://www.patreon.com/censoredpo...
Intimate: Reitman 'Sister of the Road' (1937)
April 13, 2023 03:00 - 27 minutes - 13.2 MBLet Box-Car Bertha show you the American underworld, where the homeless and rootless struggle to survive. An uncensored story that, unsurprisingly, was censored. In the publishing landscape of the mid 20th century, uncensored obviously means salaciousness but also a type of honesty that is tough and uncompromising. Bertha’s mother believes in ‘free love’ a phrase I thought originated in the 1960s but obviously dates from much earlier. The stories of hundreds of poor individuals appea...
Dot, Dot, Dot: Anon., WAAC: the Woman's Story of the War (1930)
March 30, 2023 03:00 - 40 minutes - 19.4 MBOne of many books about the First World War on the censor’s blacklist, this one claims to offer a new, fresh perspective about the British army. But how much truth can a memoir written by ‘anonymous’ tell? With Dr Andrew Frayn. For a novel that's meant to be from a women's point of view, it's often very uncharitable about them. Andrew Frayn People are walked up to the door of the bedroom, told it is a bedroom, and then left to imagine for themselves. Aoife Bhreatnach It's a generic nov...
Gunning for you: Frank Harris 'My Life and Loves' (1922)
March 16, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutes - 12.6 MBWritten by an old man reflecting on his life in sex, this notorious memoir was banned almost everywhere. It’s nice to know I’m not the imagined reader of this book – wrong gender, wrong gonads Harris thinks pandering to girl readers stripped English literature of its earthy Shakespearean soul His curious yoking together of philosophy and porn isn’t always successful Fancy supporting the show? Do so here https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Or buy stickers here: https://censoredpod.bigc...
Skeptical: Sean O'Casey 'I Knock at the Door' (1939)
March 02, 2023 04:00 - 34 minutes - 16 MBWhat happens when an Irishman whose dramas offended audiences writes an autobiography? The state censors ban it. One censor asked: are you going to allow the truth to be told about everything to everyone without qualification and at all times? On a practical level, reading O’Casey’s memoir like a censor is not easy. Obviously Catholic censors don’t approve of Protestants – they were all apostates and heretics, on a fast train to hell – but they didn’t like anti-clericalism either. Fa...
Subterfuge: Exchange and Mart magazine (1930)
February 02, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutes - 12.5 MBA deep dive into the wonderful world of classified advertisements. You could buy nearly anything through Exchange and Mart: dogs, chickens, clothing. But if you look very closely, you can see why the censors decided it was ‘habitually and frequently indecent’. Without the post, E&M would never have existed – it was a business built on stamps and letters To avoid being prosecuted for obscenity, advertisers developed a whole language of euphemism to sell contraceptives What I love about cla...
Genius: Isadora Duncan 'My Life' (1927)
January 19, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 13.8 MBIsadora Duncan was an artist who lived (and died) in an extraordinary manner. Her autobiography tells how she conceived a radical dance manifesto while partying across Europe. This memoir sold extremely well in America, being reprinted 9 times in 10 months A lot of this book reads like a society gossip column. Duncan can’t help being political: everything she sees about her life and women’s lives is politics to her. Fancy supporting the show? Do so here https://www.patreon.com/censoredp...
Propaganda: Bösche ‘Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin’ (1983)
January 05, 2023 04:00 - 24 minutes - 11.6 MBWhy did a children’s picture book provoke new form of censorship in Britain? Danish attitudes to children produced books that upset other European cultures. Before Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin was published in 1983, a member of parliament called Geoffrey Dickens called bookshops to boycott it. In 1988, a co-operative in Cork city called the Quay Co-Cop ran a bookshop that stocked what they said was the ‘most comprehensive and up-to-date selection of lesbian and gay titles in Irel...
Nudity: Health and Efficiency magazine (1933)
December 15, 2022 04:00 - 35 minutes - 18.2 MBFor the first time on the podcast, it’s a publication that’s still banned in Ireland! According to Register of Prohibited Publications, Health and Efficiency is ‘unwholesome literature’. Naturally, we want to know precisely how this magazine is corrupting and degrading its readers. With Prof Annebella Pollen. Here’s today's 'blacklist' Annebella Pollen, Nudism in a Cold Climate: the Visual Culture of Naturists in Mid-20th Century Britain (2021) Annebella’s article in Health and Efficienc...
Seedy: Greene 'Stamboul Train' (1932)
November 24, 2022 04:00 - 39 minutes - 18.7 MBA train that could whisk its passengers across borders and into each other’s arms was definitely too dangerous for the censors. With Juliette Breton. There's something quite erotic and tempting about travel, the possibility that you can go anywhere, but also you can meet anyone. Juliette Breton So many thriller/adventure/spy novels from the period use trains as a kind of way of getting into the action. Juliette Breton The train is like the boat going across the River Styx – everyone g...
Primitives: Macken, ‘Quench the Moon’ (1948)
November 10, 2022 04:00 - 31 minutes - 15.7 MBWhen Walter Macken dedicated his first novel to his Mammy, Agnes, he did not expect the censors to declare it ‘obscene’. How does a social-problem novel by a good Catholic offend the official arbiters of taste? Illegitimacy and pre martial sex are central themes and key plot devices. It's not as full throated an exploration of the relationship between man and sheep as you might expect. Macken went deep into our souls without us really noticing. Fancy supporting the show? Do so he...
Seconal Days: Valley of the Dolls (1966)
October 27, 2022 03:00 - 54 minutes - 26.6 MBHailed as ‘Dirty Book of the Month’ by Time in 1966, this novel was an instant bestseller. But not in Ireland, where it was illegal to sell it between 1967 and 1979. What does this classic of women’s fiction have to say about feminism, sex and medicine? With Dr Cara Rodway. I think one of the reasons it was so successful is that it has a wonderful curtain twitching element: who are the real celebrities that it’s based on? Cara Rodway The first film has been somewhat resurrected in later...
Seductive: Gibbons 'Nightingale Wood' (1938)
October 13, 2022 03:00 - 1 hour - 30.7 MBThis is the first banned book I’ve read that features both a foot fetish and communism. Gibbons writes satire so entrancing it’s can be hard to spot the filth but if the censors could do it, so could we. Or maybe the bewitching Englishness of the novel was too dangerous? With Dr Laura Ludtke. The novel induced that certain sweet boredom you get from reading a slow book where you look up and realize the world has moved on. Aoife Bhreatnach The names are so indicative in a very Dickensian an...
Thrilling: True Detective Mysteries
September 29, 2022 03:00 - 31 minutes - 15.5 MBHundreds of magazine titles were banned by the Irish censor. This true-crime periodical, full of murder and gangsterism, couldn’t avoid being banned for discussing crime. But advertising ‘daring’ and ‘frank’ books didn’t help either. The exuberant rampant Americanness of this magazine is what really struck me. The law also banned court reports on ‘any indecent matter the publication of which would be calculated to injure public morals’. You can see the roots of contemporary true crime in...
Lust: Maura Laverty 'Alone We Embark' (1942)
September 15, 2022 03:00 - 33 minutes - 17 MBWhen Maura Laverty gently pointed out that Irish villages simmered with perverted lust, her novel was immediately censored. Or maybe it was her pointed criticism of the state that offended the censors. If an author can please an Irish audience with a book called ‘darlin’ by the British, she must be doing something special. This is a chilling depiction of poverty and old age in the new County Homes, where the new republic has made no difference at all. This is all very soap opera - Laverty...
Evil Literature: languages of censorship
August 18, 2022 03:00 - 1 hour - 29.9 MBThe pro-censorship lobby produced a rich and often hilarious polemic. Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston joins me to talk effluent, tainted minds and ‘race suicide’. We also debate whether censorship was more of a moral panic than a conspiracy theory. Alongside the priests, there are a lot of politicians in these debates where they use rhetoric of censorship to express profound and disturbed Anglophobia. Aoife Bhreatnach D.P. Moran would have thrived in today’s internet culture, he would have bee...
The Bishop and the Nightie (1966): censure in televison
July 14, 2022 03:00 - 41 minutes - 20.8 MBThe most memorable scandals in Irish life feature a fulminating bishop and this is no exception. This brief controversy is infamous but why do we find it so compelling? Dr Morgan Wait joins me to talk about television and titillation in 1960s Ireland. Anything that doesn’t feature Gay Byrne is going to get considerably less attention. Morgan Wait When people recognise themselves, or suspect they recognise themselves, they get cross and ask for changes. Aoife Bhreatnach One of the...
Playing politics: censure in theatres
June 16, 2022 03:00 - 34 minutes - 17.8 MBTheatre riots might capture the imagination but audiences, critics and authority figures shape theatre in other less dramatic ways. Guest Dr Barry Houlihan talks about his new book Theatre and archival memory: Irish drama and marginalised histories 1951-77 (2022) · Reading a banned book is a private thing while theatre-going is a public political act. · Theatre is a way of dismantling the mechanics of the state and church. · Theatres are institutions in their own way – they ...
Morally healthy: censure in libraries
June 02, 2022 03:00 - 30 minutes - 15.3 MBWhen tax payers pay for libraries, librarians have a duty to ‘the public’. Defining that public isn’t easy, especially when priests, pressure groups and politicians get involved. · Being an arbiter of taste and decency was a tough job and nobody appreciated it. · The censorship mentality was still deeply embedded in a prudish and hypocritical society · He proceeded to tear up the books, pile them on the floor, take out a bottle of paraffin and a box of matches from his po...
Indecent images: Harry Clarke and Georges Rouault
May 19, 2022 03:00 - 46 minutes - 23.8 MBMoving pictures (de filums) were heavily censored but the state didn’t officially scrutinise other visual art forms. Censure by covert means was the preferred method to control subversive art. Guest: Dr Róisín Kennedy author of Art and the nation state: the reception of modern art in Ireland (2021) · Part of the emotional response comes from a sense that modern art is conning us, hoodwinking us. Dr Róisín Kennedy · Censorship culture made access to visual art elitist. Dr Róisín ...
Hero Worship: Roger Casement Part 2
May 05, 2022 03:00 - 26 minutes - 13.5 MBEveryone wanted a piece of Roger Casement but which piece? Carefully extracting his skeleton from heavy London mud in 1965 didn’t end the controversy over his life and lusts. · The treatment of Casement’s dead body was exceptionally cruel, even by the standards of executed prisoners. · Why are all our significant national events in March? Is there some penitential impulse forcing us to suffer for our patriotism? · After the burial of the great man in 1965, there little hope...
Enormous: Roger Casement's Diaries Part 1
April 21, 2022 03:00 - 27 minutes - 13.8 MBThe scandal over Roger Casement’s diaries is huge. People have spent millions of hours of obsessing over whether diaries allegedly found in his personal papers were forgeries or not. It’s past time I read the smut and examined the censure of the man and his writings. Truly, he was the hottest martyr of the 1916 Rising – you could argue he was the finest half who ever laid down his life for the cause of Irish freedom. If you are looking for filth, you have to read a lot about gambling, sai...
Furious: O'Flaherty 'The Martyr' (1933)
April 07, 2022 03:00 - 35 minutes - 18 MBLiam O’Flaherty was the angriest Irish author of his generation who raged against ‘soutaned witch-doctors’ (Catholic priests). He believed his outspokenness provoked social censure so severe that his work could not be found anywhere in Ireland. Guest: Teresa Dunne He’s a great man for the description of breasts Teresa Dunne I can’t believe we’re discussing whether holy medals count as a sex toy Aoife Bhreatnach You can support the show here: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod And ...
Contrabrand: The Bell Magazine (1940-54)
March 24, 2022 04:00 - 39 minutes - 19.9 MBAlthough The Bell published fiction and factual pieces on topics the censors hated, such as single motherhood or gay desire, it was never banned. Unfortunately, only a determined few read a magazine that was not on open sale in every newsagent. Guest: Phyllis Boumans [email protected] · The Bell tried to challenge the Catholic monomania by giving space to voices from different denominations. · It really was a magazine by, for and about men. · It tried to advocate ...
Burning the diabolical 'News of the World'
March 10, 2022 04:00 - 25 minutes - 12.9 MBIn this episode we meet the Angelic Warfare Association, whose newspaper burning caused a stir in 1926 and 1927. Emulating protest burnings of previous decades, these young men targeted a British Sunday newspaper, the News of the World. There were way more incidents of newspapers burnings than book bonfires. The real truth about post-independence Ireland is that everyone was reading the News of the World. Angelic Warfare was a boy’s sodality, so think of the Scouts, with extra praying...
Boycott: McNamara 'The Valley of the Squinting Windows' (1918)
February 24, 2022 04:00 - 29 minutes - 14.9 MBLike many authors Brinsley McNamara wrote about the people of his homeplace. When his satirical vision shocked and offended his neighbours, they instigated a long boycott of the author’s family. A grim story of social censure in rural Ireland. You can support the show here: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod And buy stickers here: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Riotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907) Part 2
February 17, 2022 04:00 - 38 minutes - 18.7 MBAfter debating the play in part 1, myself and Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston move onto the riots. It’s a wild ride, from the grumblings on opening night to the full-throated disorder of the following week. We pay special attention to Mr Overcoat, whose drunken antics injected absurdity to a rambunctious protest. The disruptions make this play run for hours – it’s a three act comedy that 70 or 80 minutes in performance but this event goes for 3 hours. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston It all descends...
Riotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907) Part 1
February 10, 2022 04:00 - 42 minutes - 21 MBThe Playboy Riots were a notoriously rowdy series of audience protests in the Abbey Theatre. The patrons were so offended by The Playboy of the Western World their loud singing and heckling drowned out the actors. Why did this play, at this time, provoke such a reaction? Part 1 of a deep-dive with Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston into an infamous moment in Irish cultural history. Christy is swinging his loy about in a very virile way that seems to suggest his iconoclastic sexual vitality. Llo...