Comments on: Follow the Banned http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2008/07/04/follow-the-banned/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:13:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Anthony Neilson http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2008/07/04/follow-the-banned/#comment-18875 Anthony Neilson Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:25:43 +0000 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2008/07/04/follow-the-banned/#comment-18875 Michael - and it is nice, for once, to be able to (almost) directly communicate with you - I might agree with your point about the tone of RELOCATED being inappropriate if it was, indeed, a play about the sexual exploitation of children. But it emphatically is not. As I have said so many times before, RELOCATED is an entirely subjective piece, taking place in the mind of the central character. The notion of "appropriate" is meaningless in this context, unless there are people out there who manage to think in an "appropriate" fashion. RELOCATED was a play about guilt, and mis-placed guilt at that. It was an expression of a state of mind, not the "state of things". I'm not sure if you really don't understand this or whether you are just being pig-headed. In either case I fail to see why you keep coming to see my plays. I'm sure you'd rather be writing nice things about plays you like; and I'm sure you wouldn't want to deter people who might understand what I'm doing from coming. I do hope you respond as I would be happy to have an open and public debate with you about these matters, rather than being sniped at from the sidelines. Michael - and it is nice, for once, to be able to (almost) directly communicate with you - I might agree with your point about the tone of RELOCATED being inappropriate if it was, indeed, a play about the sexual exploitation of children. But it emphatically is not. As I have said so many times before, RELOCATED is an entirely subjective piece, taking place in the mind of the central character. The notion of “appropriate” is meaningless in this context, unless there are people out there who manage to think in an “appropriate” fashion. RELOCATED was a play about guilt, and mis-placed guilt at that. It was an expression of a state of mind, not the “state of things”.

I’m not sure if you really don’t understand this or whether you are just being pig-headed. In either case I fail to see why you keep coming to see my plays. I’m sure you’d rather be writing nice things about plays you like; and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to deter people who might understand what I’m doing from coming. I do hope you respond as I would be happy to have an open and public debate with you about these matters, rather than being sniped at from the sidelines.

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