Formal innovation may not have been too concerned about Lord Chamberlain, but some of the lyrics of the song would have definitely made him reach for his blue pencil. Hair gives the hair anthemsems of uplifting flowers, especially the aquarius and the sun. But it also has a share of songs that crush the destructive taboo. Sodomy is a soulful gospel number that lists a variety of sexual acts. In Hashish, the cast chant numerous drug names, with two songs, a black boy and a white boy, comfortable inflamed with interracial relationships. There is no way that Lord Chamberlain approved any of them.
Luckily for O’Horgan, many British playwrights, producers and politicians have long wondered why one undemocratic body can still censor so many artistic efforts. This practice dates back to 1737, when the theatre licensing law was passed, primarily because Prime Minister Robert Walpole was tired of painting in productions like John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Lord Chamberlain’s theatre judges worked reading scripts and visiting theaters, ensuring that they were not allowed to scandalize the public, or satirise the government.
Inevitably, many of the team’s decisions were problematic. In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler in the film was rejected to avoid angering the Nazi regime. In the 1950s, London’s Royal Court Theatre clashed regularly with Lord Chamberlain over a kitchen sink drama with “angry young men” like John Osborne. And in the 1960s, the royal family continued to try and find loopholes so that they could perform provocative works by Joe Orton and Edward Bond. “For many years, I have not been able to perform many plays in this theatre in the language the author wrote,” William Gaskill, artistic director of the Royal Court, told the BBC in 1968.
Something like this:
• “Indecency” bans bestseller books
• The first Glastonbury Festival story
• Sexual scandals of the 1960s that shook British politics
The time for change has come – this was the dawn of the Aquarius era, after all – and after years of protests, parliamentary debate and committee meetings, a new theatre law was passed. The days of Lord Chamberlain are over. “All of this stages are set to some challenging experiments,” the BBC reported. “There’s no doubt about that. In the history of theatre room, playmen are entering a new, more freer era. They don’t have to wait until people behind the scenes show how free they are.”
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
