China censorship storm hits groundbreaking venue after drama about Tibetan exiles pulled from schedule
The Royal Court theatre has been accused of censorship by an award-winning Indian playwright, who claims that its production of a major new play about contemporary Tibet was put on ice because of fears of a negative Chinese reaction.
The London theatre, known for its groundbreaking international productions, is facing questions after Abhishek Majumdar revealed a copy of the poster for the play Pah-la, bearing the imprints of the Arts Council and the Royal Court along with text suggesting that it was due to run for a month last autumn.
Majumdar claimed the play was withdrawn because of fears over the possible impact on an arts programme in Beijing, where Chinese writers are working with the publicly funded theatre and British Council.
His play deals with life in contemporary Tibet and draws on personal stories of Tibetans he worked with in India, which is home to a substantial community of exiles, including the Dalai Lama.
The play was in development for three years and rehearsals had been fixed, according to Majumdar, who claimed that the British Council had “pressurised” the theatre to withdraw it because of sensitivities relating to the writing programme. A team from the Royal Court has been working with 16 writers in Beijing on their plays, according to its website.
Majumdar said that the Dalai Lama had told him to prepare for resistance to the play, adding: “Now I know what that means.” Tibet has long been governed as an autonomous region of China – which sent in troops in 1950 to enforce a territorial claim and has staged a large-scale relocation of Han Chinese civilians – but the allegiances of many in the largely Buddhist territory lie with the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
