TACT is proud to present Lennox Robinson’s play, Roly Poly, as our closing work for this season’s Salon Series. As you know, we pride ourselves in finding remarkable works that are rarely staged, despite their greatness, and this time we have come up with something that is remarkably special. This presentation of Roly Poly, will be, as far as we can determine, only the second time the play has ever been produced, and with our production, which is the U.S. Premiere, will more that double the number of times the play has been heard or seen. Ever. Banned by Ireland’s Department of Justice when it was first presented at the Gates Theatre in Dublin, it was closed down after only three performances.
So why was it banned?
While England was subject to censorship in the theatre through the Theatres Act of 1843, scrutinizing the content of a play prior to staging, was never part of Irish doctrine. Even in the 1920’s when film and literature was being held hostage by rules of censorship, the theatre was still considered sacred and untouchable. However, directly after the start of World War Two, Ireland, who had taken a neutral position in that war, became wary of offending any of their European neighbors. So the government was on the look out for any material that might jeopardize their position. In October of 1939, a comedy sketch which poked fun at Chamberlain and Hitler was up for staging at the Theatre Royal in Dublin, when it came to the attention of the censorship committee. Not wanting to provoke outrage from the German and British governments, the sketch was banned.
Immediately following, a decree was passed which demanded the censoring of any work that focused attention on, or made fun of in any way, any foreign government official. A warning was issued by the Department of Justice to all theatres and music halls that they were to be especially judicious of the works they were staging. Failure to comply would result in loss of license.
In November 1940, Lennox Robinson’s play Roly Poly — an adaptation of Boule de Suif, a short story of Maupassant’s, set against the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian war— managed to anger, not one but two countries by featuring a French prostitute, and an unsympathetic German officer. Within twenty four hours, the Vichy and German governments were up in arms, and The Gate theatre, which had produced the play, was told that they had compromised Ireland. Although the Gate tried its best to continue with the production, they ultimately pulled the play, voluntarily, but under protest, and the production was shut down. The censoring of Roly Poly created a minor uproar and the government released an “unofficial” Bureau statement that suggested that the work had to been pulled due to “moral grounds.” The editor of the Irish Times quickly shot back that this was “baloney” and that the real reason was that the play “offended other nationalities.” This item, however, as all other items that even mentioned the play or the controversy, were censored as well. And thus, though a significant scandal, the play was quickly forgotten and has never seen the light of day since.
An interesting side note to this is that, thanks to the uproar, the Gate’s manager began to panic about ever hearing again from the Department of Justice. Who wants to lose a license in the name of art? Shortly after the plays withdrawal Michael Mac Liammoir wrote to playwright Frank O’Connor suggesting that the time was not quite right for his play The Statues Daughter that was about a national hero who fathered a child out of wedlock. Because of the negative response to Robinson’s play, Liammoir wasn’t taking any chances. He told O’Connor that he thought his play might raise “a minor stink,” and although at any other time such publicity would be perfectly fine by him, he didn’t want his theater to be shut down.
Lennox Robinson was born in 1886 in County Cork Ireland, the son a stockbroker turned protestant clergyman. It was seeing a touring production of the Abbey Theatre when he was 21, that sparked his interest in the theatre and encouraged him to pursue it as a career. His first play, The Cross Roads, was performed in the Abbey in 1909 and he became manager of the theatre towards the end of that year. His early work was influenced by Synge, and focused on the grand tradition of Irish folk drama, middle class, and small town life. He would later develop into a playwright concerned with the politics of Ireland, which were in his lifetime, explosive. He could also, as it turned out, write a damn good comedy as well. Today we could consider him a kind of Renaissance man; for besides managing and directing at the Abbey, he was also a playwright, novelist, essayist, and theatre historian. His best-known works are The Whiteheaded Boy (1916) and The Big House (1926) and Drama at Inish (1933), which was present in London and on Broadway under the title Is Life Worth Living.
