Signs of the times

A few weeks ago, we went to the Arts Theatre to see Cheek by Jowl's production of the overwrought Jacobean tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Entering the auditorium, we were presented with a sign warning that the production contained nudity and bloody violence. Fair enough, given that these days when a character murders and dissects his sister, that sort of thing naturally occasions buckets of the old Kensington Gore for audiences oft rendered blasé by the various species of torture porn that runs through cinemas without any shrieking of "Look -- a video nasty!!".

Today, we went to see the Marlowe Society's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and the warning this time was that there would be smoking on stage.

Is this what we have descended to, that when a production decides that Oberon shall open the second half lazily waving a cigarette as he observes the chaos he has occasioned, that we have to warn the sensitive of the fact?

Some people need to grow the hell up.