Peter Rhodes on Russian lies, trigger warnings and how to fight exploitation – with unicorns
In the continuing campaign to protect us from absolutely anything (and especially from common sense), a London theatre has issued a trigger warning for its production of Pygmalion, the play that inspired the musical My Fair Lady.
Theatregoers at the Old Vic are warned that this Pygmalion “contains portrayals of abuse, abusive language and coercive control.” I'm guessing this is a reference to Professor Higgins asking Eliza Doolittle to fetch his slippers, but who knows? If the Edwardian ethics of Pygmalion are likely to cause offence to some snowflakes, Gawd knows what traumas the poor lambs might suffer if exposed to the 1964 movie version in which Eliza, a flower girl posing as a grand lady, yells at her horse at Ascot: “Come on, Dover! Move yer bloomin' arse!”.
Sorry, I should have warned you about that . . .
