Felicity Kendal has said it’s ‘a shame’ that plays require trigger warnings as she blasted the ‘terrible’ West End pricing.
Speaking in a new interview, the actress, 79, also said that while theatre is ‘thriving’ young people and ‘future audiences’ can’t afford the rising costs.
Felicity is currently starring in Indian Ink at Hampstead Theatre, London, which will wrap up at the end of next month.
But The Good Life star shared her disappointment at some aspects of the current West End scene.
She explained: ‘I don’t think I would have been in any plays that wouldn’t have had trigger warnings. It’s not real; we create another world with fantasy.
‘It’s very good we’re aware of everyone’s sensitivity, but the nature of an artist is they have to be unaware; otherwise, they wouldn’t do what they do.’
Felicity Kendal has said it’s ‘a shame’ that plays require trigger warnings as she blasted the ‘terrible’ West End pricing
Speaking in a new interview, the actress, 79, also said that while theatre is ‘thriving’ young people and ‘future audiences’ can’t afford the rising costs
Felicity told The Times that shows also needed to be ‘more affordable’ and pricing is something that ‘needs looking in to.’
She added: ‘Theatre is thriving, but the high price of West End theatre is a terrible thing. As soon as you have a star in a well-known play, nobody can afford to see it.’
Next year Felicity will be going back to the Barbican to play Tracy Lord’s mother in a new production of High Society, after playing snooty Evangeline Harcourt in Anything Goes at the same venue four years ago.
Call The Midwife star Helen George, 41, will play Tracy – the role made famous by Grace Kelly in the glorious 1956 movie, which also starred Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.
High Society (based on stage comedy The Philadelphia Story – later a film of the same name) is about Long Island socialite Tracy Lord, who’s getting ready to marry her stuffed-shirt beau, George Kittredge.
But the nuptials are crashed by Tracy’s ex husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, plus reporters Mike Connor and Liz Imbrie from Spy magazine.
Songs include Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Well, Did You Evah.
Last month, a London theatre slapped a series of bizarre trigger warning on a new show – telling ticket-holders to beware that ‘real soil’ and ‘balloon animals’ are used in the production.
She explained: ‘ I don’t think I would have been in any plays that wouldn’t have had trigger warnings. It’s not real; we create another world with fantasy’
Loop, which is currently on at Theatre 503 and tells the story of a girl who works in a party shop in Peckham and becomes obsessed with a man she meets, shares with the audience that haze – such as dust, smoke, or salt, are suspended in the air and reduce visibility – is also present throughout the performance.
Viewers have been left surprised at the warnings, which are alongside more clear-cut ones for ‘scenes of a sexual nature and depictions of violence’ during the show which is described as a ‘surreal one-woman fever dream’ and runs for 65 minutes.
Loop, which is a one-woman psychological horror for which tickets cost £24.
Elsewhere, the Guilford Shakespeare Company added some rather obvious alerts to its forthcoming production of David Copperfield.
In what many visitors might think would be par for the course when seeing an adaption of Charles Dickens’ 1850 novel, the company warned that it contains scenes of ‘hardship.’
A number of big-name stars have hit out against the inclusion of trigger warnings on productions, insisting that being shocked and challenged is the very purpose of going to the theatre.
‘I can see why they exist, but if you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theatre, because you could be very shocked,’ said Dame Judi Dench, 90, last year.
‘Where is the surprise of seeing and understanding it in your own way?’
