Village Squire, 1978-05, Page 50P.S.
Bad language
and sex
in the media
bring out
childishness
I guess as usual, I must be in a small
minority. There seem to be only two sides
of the fence these days when .if comes to
swearing, cursing and sex in television,
movies and plays and I can't see eye to eye
with either of them.
I was in Toronto recently and stopped
over to see one of the most popular plays in
the city at that time. The show was called
Sexual Perversity in Chicago and satirized
the modern singles bar, easy sex r of the
young "swingers" of today. The play has
some valid points to make and is very
funny in many places. The Toronto
audience seemed to eat it up but I quivered
when I thought of the reaction to the play
that would be given by local audiences.
There are some who would argue that
the Toronto audience was very sophisticat-
ed which is a way of saying that those
commentors themselves are sophisticated
and somehow a little better than the people
outside of the city who wouldn't enjoy such
a show. Frankly, as I sat through the show I
wondered just how sophisticated they
were. I figured either the rest of the
audience had a lot of hangups or I did.
For while, as I say, the show did have
some valid points to make, most of the
humour seemed to be based on the
characters using language and talking
about subjects they would normally not talk
about on stage. thus a character would use
a particularly juicy four-letter word and
nearly everyone would roll in the aisle.
This is sophistication? It reminds me more
of a bunch of public school kids who take
delight in using the latest spurious
additions to their vocabulary on each other
and think it hilarious. It reminded me of
kids finding a copy of Lady Chatterly's
Lover on the library bookshelf and
huddling in the corner snickering at the
sexy parts. If the audience . is so
sophisticated, so mature, why were they .
still acting like children?
As a writer 1 can't have much admiration
for writers who have to use such language.
Sure 1 know all about expressing reality
PG. 48. VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1978.
and have nothing against the words per se.
1 know it sounds pretty phoney to have a
character who is furious at someone say
"ah heck" when ninety per cent of the
people in the audience would say "oh
hell". In context, "bad" language isn't
bad at all.
But too many writers, directors and
actors to my way of thinking resort to easy
laughs, or easy tensions with the use of
rough language. A certain portion of the
audience is going to titter if you use a four
letter word, not because it's really funny.
but because they haven't grown up enough
to have gotten beyond thinking four letter
words are funny.
Artists talk about any move to clean up
their act as a move against artistic
integrity. Frankly, I don't think using
rough language for cheap laughs or effects
has much artistic integrity. It's a crutch.
It's a lot easier to use them then it is to
work hard to craft a scene that is genuinely
-effective. Those who resort to gratuitous
foul language or sex are taking the easy
way out. There is very little integrity to
taking the easy way out.
On the other hand, however, you have
the people who get too easily offended by
such things. A recent performance in the
area of the Newfoundland comedy troupe
Codco had some people up in arms. Some
just complained. Some left at intermission.
Some vowed never again to darken the
door of the theatre that hosted the group.
It's a constant headache for producers in
Western Ontario. I know. I've been one. In
nearly all the smaller communities in the
fall and winter months, theatre means
imported touring companies. Often it is
impossible to know just what the show is
about, especially since most of the
companies touring are performing new
works, for which no published script is
available. I remember one group I was
responsible for booking a few years back
which I asked b,efore hand if there was
anything in the show likely to upset people.
They said very confidently that there was
not. When the show actually was
performed on stage, however, some
- regular patrons of the theatre swore they'd
never come back after seeing such "filth".
And guess who got the blame.
Of course while some people complain
loudly about such antics on stage, others
love it, and so a producer just can't win.
You can't win anyway because nearly any
show booked is liable to have something
objectionable to someone in it. And yet
there are surprises. For instance when
Theatre Passe Muraille toured its
production of Horsburgh, the story of Rev.
Russel Horsburgh a couple of years ago
with Don Harron as the lead, there was a
good deal of apprehension on the part of
hosting organizations. After all, it was a
touchy subject made more touchy in
Western Ontario because Horsburgh was a
native of the Wingham area in the northern
part of the region and the famous scandal
was at Chatham in the southern end of the
region. There was even a stylized bit of sex
in the show. Yet the verdict from most of
the audience seemed to be that the show
was well and tastefully handled.
People who do not like cursing, swearing
and sex on stage or screen have every right
to object. They have every right to stay
home or go home. Yet they are sometimes
as immature as those who giggle at the
subjects in their reactions to such things.
They may curse and swear at their
neighbours, their wives or their dogs. but
are scandalized to hear the same words on
stage. They may join heartily in the telling
of smutty jokes among a small group of
friends, but think it horrid on stage. They
pretend to be innocent being corrupted by
the antics put before them by actors but at
the same time many of the things they
complain about are obscure double
entendres what anyone with a virginal
thought process wouldn't see as anything
but clean.
It seems to me that both sides of this
argument put on a "more mature than
thou" cloak in the discussion. It seems to
me that both sides could stand to grow up a
little more. Then if the smug "sophisti-
cates" learned they couldn't get a rise out
of the "moralists" every time a four letter
word was used then the whole problem
would soon disappear. It wouldn't be fun
anymore.
HflYOflE
IflTERESTED
in starting
a weavers and
spinners guild
Phone 887-9253
or 523-4294
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