Dame Judi Dench has a few terse words for audiences who need trigger warnings: “If you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theatre.”
The 89-year-old British actress was asked about her views on trigger warnings in a recent interview with Britain’s Radio Times.
“Do they do that?” Dench replied. “My God, it must be a pretty long trigger warning before King Lear or Titus Andronicus.”
“I can see why they exist, and it is preparing people, I suppose, but if you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theatre, because you could be very shocked. Where is the surprise of seeing and understanding it in your own way?”
She continued: “Why go to the theatre if you’re going to be warned about things that are in the play? Isn’t the whole business of going to the theatre about seeing something that you can be excited, surprised, or stimulated by? It’s like being told they’re all dead at the end of King Lear. I don’t want to be told.”
Many stage companies have added trigger warnings ahead of performances to warn audiences of potentially upsetting material. In the past, companies have warned spectators about strobe lighting and other stage effects. But now the warnings cover “offensive” content — like portrayals of minorities and women in classic plays.
As Breitbart News reported, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London added a trigger warning before a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar back in 2022, warning audiences of war, self-harm, and suicide, in addition to on-stage violence.
Judi Dench is the latest star to come down against trigger warnings.
Ralph Fiennes called for theaters to do away with them, telling the BBC earlier this year that “I think the impact of theatre should be that you’re shocked and you should be disturbed. I don’t think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young, (we) never had trigger warnings for shows.”
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