Silly Little Country

Sonja Smit's Nudity?

Doc has a very coy post on some current production at the Grand Theatre in London. The coyness is not Doc's but that of the author of the column that the London Free Press quite sensibly chose not to publish.

But I still don't know what the objectionable production was. Is it 'The Graduate' and is it Sonja Smits as Mrs. Robinson that has got Doc's friend twisted in such knots? My guess is the details are withheld for fear that they would sell more tickets.

Doc asks at the end:

What is it about so much nudity, that it seems to involve females? Are we still living is such a male-dominated society, or is it just that female bodies make for better art than do male bodies?

Well, I am a Canadian Stage subscriber, and even going back to Fiona Reid baring her body in Stoppard's 'Indian Ink' (in her fifties, I think, and a nice one it was), it is still the case that in the last season and a half around ten men have appeared on stage in their productions naked and I think only Reid among women. (Not counting 'Hair' last year, which is a pretty even split, I think.)

I have vaguer memories of earlier productions featuring nudity ('Angels in America', ...) and think it was a pretty even split. On the other hand, perhaps a Toronto theatre company takes account of this and tries to do the politically correct thing.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 3:01 PM