List of Banned Plays: List of Plays Not Recommended for the Stage
Abstract
The presented sources provide a look behind the scenes at the censoring of amateur theatre movement at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s. One of the most effective ways of curbing the spontaneous and vigorous phenomenon was to ban the plays that the state apparatus deemed politically dangerous. The “List of Plays Banned” and the “List of Plays Not Recommended for the Stage” are stark examples of how the procedure was implemented. Based on other archival materials it may be concluded that both lists were put together in the second half of the 1950s as a result of work of two state institutions tasked with censoring the theatre in the People’s Republic of Poland, namely the Główny Urząd Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk (Central Office for Control of the Press, Publications and Public Performances) and the Ministry of Culture and Art. The plays entered on the lists represent different genres, including operettas, vaudevilles, farces, vignettes, dramas of manners, historical dramas, folk dramas, etc. Most of the texts banned by the censors are not highly artistic creations; they are popular pieces, published at the turn of the 20th century and in the inter-war period
Keywords:
censor, censorship after 1945, theatre history, Polish theatre, theatre pratices, theatre and politicsReferences
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