Subjected to censorship

On March 28, Caribou High School drama students performed their prize-winning production of “Interview” for their fellow classmates for the first time. They had already performed the play on March 9 in Fort Kent at the Northern Region 1 Drama Festival, where it took first place. They performed it again in Caribou on March 22 for the Maine Drama Festival, where it received third place among 12 contenders in the statewide competition sponsored by the Maine Drama Council and the Maine Principals Association.

But this time, there was a difference. The acclaimed one-act play by Jean-Claude van Italie was censored by principal David Ouellette, who agreed to the performance on condition that the actors would delete the word “penis,” which is used three times in a psychiatrist’s office scene.

I am shocked that an educator would restrict the access of young minds to one of the most acclaimed contemporary American playwrights. Audiences coming from around Maine, including Caribou, were allowed (indeed, were encouraged) to witness the “unexpurgated” version of this social commentary.

Yet Caribou’s own teen-agers were barred from a similarly enlightening experience. It is appalling that an artist should have his work subjected to censorship by those who should be on the front ranks of support for freedom of expression.

Please understand, there is nothing at all pornographic about the play. The word is used to illustrate the inadequacy of Freudian psychology to respond to the materialistic malaise of American society. And, really, what are we talking about here? A word that names a body part that half the population possesses, and the other half, regardless of how young or old, is entirely aware exists? It’s not exactly a big secret! Are we saying that there is something shameful, dirty, or obscene about males?

I recently discovered that my internet service provider was censoring my incoming emails it deemed “pornographic.” I found this out by accident. An attorney friend sent me an email with an Los Angeles Times article on a contentious mayoral race in southern California. The e-mail was blocked because it contained the word “ass”–referring to the four-legged animal that one candidate accused the other of acting like. When I called my ISP to complain, I was informed by a proud technician that they had recently installed the software to “protect” customers from receiving pornography. I explained that I didn’t want to be “protected” by someone else’s notion of what was appropriate or inappropriate for me to see, that I was full well able to decide for myself. The person on the other end of the telephone was stunned. Apparently, he did not have the same confidence in my choices that I did. (I am now looking for a new ISP.)

Isn’t this precisely the type of conduct we routinely criticize in other countries? Didn’t we spend billions of dollars over 45 years to broadcast information through the “iron curtain” that would otherwise have been withheld from Eastern European populations? Aren’t we in the process of doing the same thing now by expanding Voice of America broadcasting in the Middle East?

I am sure that removing one word from “Interview” did not stop Caribou High School students from feeling the poignant impact of the play, nor admiring the breathtakingly timed and executed performances of their peers. But I fear they got the wrong message about literature, art, human anatomy, and intellectual freedom.

Jillian Aldebron lives in Presque Isle.