Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much

I hate reading stuff like this (guess I’m just an old, moralistic, liberal stick-in-the-mud today).

I have a question for Tara Kissane, the Director of Visual and Performing Arts for the Higley Unified School District in Mesa, AZ; did you actually ask any of the kids whether or not you should stop the production of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” as noted in the story? Did they appear to be confused, scared, or offended somehow?

As noted in the story…

The play was produced by a New York-based touring company, Windwood Theatricals. Paul Bartz, the producer, said he was surprised to learn the performance was stopped.

“It's a matter of interpretation, but they're surely not seeing anything on that stage that they're not seeing on television,” Bartz said Tuesday. “You might liken it to a 'Saturday Night Live' sketch on Shakespeare.”

The group's Web site says it's a “whirlwind roller coaster tribute to the immortal bard. Three actors take on the daunting task of performing 37 plays and 154 sonnets in under two hours, illuminating the world of Shakespeare through the use of football, swordplay and hip-hop music.” A version ran off-Broadway in 2001-2002.

Thinking about the early parts of the play, Bartz said, “The only thing I can think of that she might have found objectionable is that there is the use of the word penis, twice.” He said if Kissane had objections, the cast could have made adjustments, but they weren't given the chance.

Bartz also said he’d shown a video of the production to his own middle-school-age kids, and they apparently had no problem with it (I guess he would say that, but I'm inclined to believe him).

But heaven forbid that we subject our children to people such as that ruffian Shakespeare, what with everyone walking around threatening to expose a “bare bodkin” (a knife, by the way), as well as all of that war, witchcraft, and tawdry sexual contact, to say nothing of ritual suicide.

Yep, it’s more important to preserve our “moral values” than to provide insight for our kids into the world through literature’s greatest author (IMHO).

Sure it is.