Wednesday, January 12, 2005

I saw Saw a couple of hours ago.
(That sentence will of course only make sense if you know that there is a deeply disturbing film on general release called Saw).
Still not sure what I think about it – definitely edge of the seat stuff…
I wouldn’t recommend you let your granny watch it.

Which, in a very round about way, brings me to the topic I’ve nearly posted about three or four times in the last couple of days. This week yet another religious group has made claims of blasphemy over a theatre work to great effect. Thankfully this time there were no rocks thrown (although there may have been deaths threats).

I haven’t seen Jerry Springer the Opera yet, which is one of the reasons I haven’t felt comfortable writing about it. I’m also not sure where you draw the line between free speech and offending someone’s deeply held faith. I am completely in favour of free speech, however and think that if there is God, then I’m sure He/She is more than big enough to look after themselves.
(And I absolutely realise that even that last sentence would be blasphemous is some people’s opinions!)

I think what the furore has done though is once again expose the British press as a disgrace to this country. The reporting of the uproar has been as far removed from journalism as my arse. The Sun reported that the BBC 2 broadcast was a ratings flop (which it then goes on to explain to its readers means that the British public have voted with their remote controls), while the Guardian said that it was actually a ratings triumph, gaining far more viewers than a TV program in that slot normally gets.
NO prizes for guessing which one I’m more likely to believe.

The red tops (The Sun included) also talked about the 3000 occurrences of the F word and 290 odd C words in the production. I think the best person to answer those claims is the co-author Stewart Lee:

'Apparently it includes 3,168 F-words. Who has had the time to count this? Have you any idea how long it would take to sing 3,168 F-words? There obviously aren't 3,168 F-words in it, there couldn't be that many in two hours even if that was the only word which was sung. (Maybe it would be good if the show was just that - it would have a kind of Morton Feldman/John Cage quality)

'I also read that there are 297 uses of the word "cunt". There are in fact only seven - three as a noun, and four as an adjective.

'Neither Mary, God, not Jesus are represented as "self-centred sexual deviants" - unless being 'a bit gay', which Jesus says he is, counts a sexual deviance, which we hardly feel it does. Both God and Mary are represented with the utmost respect, as is their holy due.'


(from Chortle via Neil Gaiman)


Stay tuned for my theories on the Blair v. Brown feud (which I turned into a ten minute musical for the Greenwich Theatre competition this week) and evidence pointing to the fact that Celebrity is a sexually transmitted disease...

No comments:

THE BLOG IS DEAD (I mean the blog as a medium. This blog is merely sleeping.) I really miss writing the blog so I'm determined ...