• Post-performance talk on May 23rd, 2023.

A darkly comical fable about the boundaries of sexual fantasies, societal morals, power dynamics, and artistic freedom.

In The Censor, a female pornographer confronts the man responsible for determining whether her work can be released to the public. She attempts to convince him to see past the graphic images, but the battle she is fighting is much more significant than just a film. With wit and cleverness, she challenges an established structure that feeds on taboos, guilt, shame, and relies on outdated and unquestioned rules and repressive regulations.

The Censor is a clever, darkly comical, and revealing parable for the century-old systems and narratives that maintain Western patriarchal power structures. At a time when the demand to expose these mechanisms is more significant than ever, when freedom of expression and regulation has become more complex, and when the structures of the arts industries are rightfully questioned, Neilson's 1997 play remains scarily relevant. The beauty of the writing is that it addresses the seriousness and relevance of the issues with a good amount of dry, dark British humour.

Director Anne Simon and her team challenge and question our preconceived notions of form, gender, power, gaze, and narrative, urging both characters and audience to confront their own expectations and the conventions that uphold power structures.