\n Bev Jenkins said she was set to direct a production of the 1980s BBC sitcom, ‘Allo ‘Allo, but Ludlow Assembly Rooms prevented the return of the show after receiving several complaints over its contents.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fiona Morrell, the CEO of Ludlow Assembly Rooms, claims no confirmed booking or formal approach was made for the show – but would not categorically deny Ms Jenkins’ claims.\n<\/p>\n
\n The stage production, created by Ludwig Theatre Arts, was a follow-up to a previous show that ran at the Assembly Rooms in April and is set in a time of Nazi-occupied France, following “reluctant hero” Ren\u00e9 Artois, who spends his time dodging the Gestapo whilst hiding two British airmen. It is based on the popular TV series that became a British classic during the 80s.\n<\/p>\n
\n “No one is forced to attend a theatre production. \u201c\u2018Allo \u2018Allo\u201d is well known for its innuendo, caricatures, and wartime satire,” Ms Jenkins said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Audiences know exactly what they are booking to see. It reflects a particular style of British comedy from another era, and whether one personally likes that humour or not, it remains part of our cultural and theatrical history.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If amateur theatre groups become fearful of performing anything that might offend a handful of people, where does it end?\n<\/p>\n
\n “Do we begin quietly removing classic comedies, pantomimes, historical dramas, and satire from local stages because someone, somewhere, may object?”\n<\/p>\n
\n Although the original BBC series was much-loved by viewers, in recent years it was given a content warning for “offensive and outdated jokes about French and German stereotypes,” The Express reported.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Jenkins has questioned whether the decision not to bring back the production will send the wrong message to the hundreds of theatre-goers who attended the first show, which brought “enjoyment to so many”.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is not about demanding that everyone approve of every joke or every script,” she added.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It is about whether the arts should be shaped by open-minded discussion and audience choice \u2014 or by a culture increasingly quick to censor and restrict.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Surely the better response to material someone dislikes is simply not to buy a ticket, rather than preventing everyone else from making that choice for themselves.”\n<\/p>\n
\n But Fiona Morrell, the CEO of Ludlow Assembly Rooms, said: “The team consider all submissions on their merits but we’ve not had a formal request.”\n<\/p>\n
\n She added: “We receive far more applications to put on work than we are able to programme and thus consider each one carefully based on our artistic vision and plans for the season.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We are still at the stage of planning what shows we want to do together next year.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Jack Ludwig, owner of Ludwig Theatre Arts, said the company was only in the early stages of ‘Allo Allo 2’ and had not formally booked the production yet.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: “We are excited for The Addams Family and continuing to grow our relationship with LAR.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bev Jenkins said she was set to direct a production of the 1980s BBC sitcom, ‘Allo ‘Allo, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-599504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}