The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76702   Message #1364029
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
23-Dec-04 - 09:08 AM
Thread Name: Birmingham play closed by mob
Subject: RE: Birmingham play closed by mob
If Shambles, or anyone else, wants to suggest ways in which any song of mine could be improved they are welcome. If I agree, I'd change it. And even if I disagreed, they'd still be perfectly welcome to sing it their way if they wished.

Greg, I think you misunderstand my position. I think that asking a playwright - or a songwriter - to change a play or a song, for example because it seems insulting to people who do not deserve to be insulted, is a perfectly reasonable think to ask, and I think that it is right for a playwright or a songwriter to consider such a request seriously, which doesn't mean an obligation to comply with it. But nor is there any duty to refuse to comply, if there are no good reasons to do so, which of course there may be.

I also think the right to protest peacefully can apply in such cases. However I do not think there is a right to riot or to threaten people.

Om this particular case I can't see how switching the action to "a community centre" rather than "a Sikh Temple" would in fact have significantly weakened it. Here is an extract from the play, anyway, from The Independent.