Theatre bosses have issued trigger warnings for “people with a sensitive disposition” attending pantomimes this Christmas, alerting them to the risk of audiences making “loud noises” and plotlines occasionally being a bit risqué (Mail, Sun).
Families heading to The Roses Theatre, in Gloucestershire, to watch the Cinderella production have been warned there may be some jokes “that only adults might get”.
The warning is aimed at those bringing anyone under the age of five or those who have a sensitive disposition.
It reads on the theatre’s website: “Pantomime is so much fun, but often contains loud noises, lighting effects, audience interaction and some jokes that only the adults might get.
“If you’re bringing anyone under the age of 5 or someone with a sensitive disposition please keep this in mind.”
The theatre is also offering an “adults only” version of the panto that tells people to prepare for “dirty jokes, f-bombs, and outrageous antics”.
The Everyman Theatre in nearby Cheltenham has a similar warning for its Aladdin pantomime, alerting audiences to the fact the show may be “loud and cheeky”.
It states: “Panto is a lot of fun, but sometimes it can be a little bit loud, and a little bit cheeky, with some jokes that only grown-ups will understand.
“Please bear this in mind if you are bringing anyone under the age of 5, or anyone with a nervous or more sensitive disposition.”
Last year, the same theatre pulled a song from a production of Mother Goose after several audience members complained that the lyrics about vegans would lead to bullying. The song apparently said that the “G in vegan stands for gassy, while the A stands for either anaemic or annoying”.
Back in 2022, an Aladdin pantomime in Liverpool with an all-white cast, and featuring the lyric “come on down to our oriental town” was condemned as racist by the UK Pantomime Association.
The race and equality committee of actors’ union Equity concurred, stating that it was “shocked by a very white-looking cast”, and called for an “industry wide panto conference”.
On the small screen, ITV’s streaming service is now warning viewers that Sir David Lean’s celebrated 1948 film adaption of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist contains “language from a bygone era”.
The trigger warning states: “With some violence and language from a bygone era”.
During the black-and-white classic, Oliver is repeatedly verbally abused by his tormentors who refer to him as “orphan”, “workhouse”, “little bag of bones”, and the “worst disposed boy I ever did see”. This reflects the language of the original novel.
In one scene, the bullying Noah Claypole, played by Michael Dear, taunts Oliver about the fat of his late mother.
“Your mother must have been a regular right down bad un,” he tells the young boy. “It’s a great deal better workhouse that she died when she did, else she would be doing hard labour in Bridewell or transported or hung which is more likely than either isn’t it.” But this again reflects the language in the original novel.
Critics have accused ITV of producing a warning which manages to be both woke and meaningless.
Professor Jeremy Black, the author of England in the Age of Dickens said: “The language employed in the warning is pejorative, misleading, and dangerous.
“This is doubly ironic, for Dickens both as a great novelist and as a major journalist wrote with commitment and clarity about problems not only of his age but of all ages.
“Oliver Twist deals with the vulnerability of youth. This is captured brilliantly in the power of the novel and the vision of the film. They should not be touched.”
The David Lean film which starred John Howard Davies as Oliver, Robert Newton as Bill Sykes, and Kay Walsh as Nancy is frequently hailed as one of the greatest ever Dickens adaptations and one of the finest films ever made.
In 1999 the British Film Institute (BFI) ranked the film number 46 on a list of the one hundred best British films ever made.
