Now Turkey bans Macbeth
mainThe Islamisation of the arts in Turkey is advancing in crazy ways. First, Islamic dress code at the state opera and ballet. Then a ban on music by Fazil Say, the country’s best-known classical musician.
Now Shakespeare’s Macbeth has been taken off at the state theatre in Ankara after it was ‘watched by a group of Ministry of Culture and Tourism officials last Tuesday.’ They left without applauding. The rest of the run was summarily cancelled.
Be very concerned.
Worrying indeed. On a more amusing note, Martin Randall Travel arranged a performance of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas in the ancient theatre at Sabratha, Libya, which the censors passed happily enough. They were concerned at the AAM’s harpsichord however, which for a time was stuck in the docks. Perhaps it would have been better labelled as a piano for these purposes! Later on the same cruise was an abridged Shakespeare play – Julius Caesar – which required full prior script approval. Considering JC’s fate (and later Gadaffi’s), we were fortunate that they cleared it for performance……