A Utah theatre-goer who brought her teenaged son to see Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” is furious with the Pioneer Theatre Company because the 1978 Tony Award-nominated play included an on-stage same-sex kiss.
The play — the longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway — was so popular it was made into a 1982 movie starring Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine, and Dyan Cannon.
“I trusted you!,” the unnamed theatre patron cried to the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. Pioneer Theatre posted the angry customer’s letter to Facebook, but removed his/her name. John Becker at Bilerico, who first reported on the story, described it as “an outraged, pearl-clutching letter.”
Describing themselves as “normally calm,” and “mild-mannered,” the audience member says they were “infuriated with the explicit, homosexual display on stage because I had brought my teenage son to see the seemingly innocuous play.” They were also angry because there was no content warning — as if a same-sex kiss demanded an X rating. “Why was brazen homosexual content not included in the advisory?,” they demanded to know.
You ruined my evening, ruined my trust in you, and you ruined the trust my son has in me to find worthwhile entertainment for him. I feel sick about tonight.
I am appalled that you could not have simply stated: homosexual content. I have NEVER been so disgusted and infuriated! I was livid.
Fortunately, Chris Lino, the Pioneer Theatre Company’s Managing Director, posted both the letter and his response.
He writes:
We did not include the scene in the content advisory for two reasons:
1. It is indeed a major plot revelation in a murder mystery that relies entirely on plot twists for suspense, revealing the motive for the murder that has just occurred; to include it would have revealed a plot point that would have spoiled the show for patrons.
2. I did not think it rose to the level of requiring an advisory. You describe the content as “edgy,†and there are indeed times we do produce edgier material (this year’s Other Desert Cities or last season’s Clybourne Park come to mind, for which I believe we go to great pains to provide content advisories), but in this day and age I hardly think Deathtrap, a forty year old play, or a brief kiss by two men (there is no other sexual activity of any kind in the play) qualifies as edgy.
I have to ask, and I do so in all sincerity: In putting on Deathtrap, we are “play acting,†and in this particular play we show two characters carrying out a cold-blooded murder, and then we show them kissing as the motivation for the murder. You object to the kissing, but not to the fact that they’re murderers? You are comfortable with your son witnessing an enacted murder, but not a same sex kiss? In both cases, it’s just make-believe, but how is a play that depicts murder, whether it’s a contemporary murder-mystery like Deathtrap or an immortal tragedy like Macbeth, morally acceptable while the depiction of a fairly innocuous, albeit same-sex kiss, is totally unacceptable? The script doesn’t ask you to condone either the murder or the kiss; despite what you imply, we’re not promoting a homosexual agenda in producing Deathtrap; if anything, since the two characters who kiss are the villains of the piece, the kiss becomes part of their villainy, and both characters get their comeuppance in the second act.
Touché, Mr. Lino!
The angry theatre patron, who says their “real desire is that you could erase the images in my son’s mind and in mine,” apparently already bought tickets for the next show of the season. They’re probably not going to be happy with that one either: “Sweet Charity.”
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Image by Pioneer Theatre Company via Facebook