In 1885, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado opened in London, and ran for nearly 700 performances. Set in Japan, the opera tells the story of a government that seeks to outlaw flirting, and the consequences that follow. The opera was set in Japan because of the British public’s attraction to exotic foreign locales. One of the goals: to set the piece outside Britain so as to properly satirize British society without fear of blowback.
In any case, the work was never meant to be racist. And the music is clearly written in a stereotypical Asian style. So setting a production of it in Renaissance Italy, for example, would be silly in the extreme.
But that’s precisely what the Lamplight Theater in San Francisco will do thanks to blowback from the local Asian community. They have now issued a statement to the theatergoing public explaining their decision:
Our original plan was to set this year’s Mikado in the late 19th Century Meiji period – the time when The Mikado was written, and a time of international cross-cultural exchange with the rapid westernization of Japanese culture and society. With an eye towards inclusion, we reached out to various Japanese and Asian Bay Area organizations and scholars, as well as to the local Asian performing community, in the hopes of encouraging discussion, collaboration, and increased interest in our auditions. Instead of the hoped-for partnerships, these efforts attracted intense opposition, and ultimately resulted in threats of local and national protest, escalating to the point where we were confronted with the imminent loss of our San Francisco venue. This risked the survival of our company. Our response was to make the decision to remove the exotic lens of Japan from this production, and to replace it with a different exotic lens – that of Renaissance Italy – the backdrop for many of Shakespeare’s greatest works.
In other words, the left’s asinine fight against cultural appropriation means that nobody can produce Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado the way it was written, warts and all. Instead, Gilbert and Sullivan will be set in Italy — which isn’t cultural appropriation because Italy isn’t a foreign country. Or something.
Odd, then, that the same theatergoing community that finds The Mikado so offensive has no problem whatsoever with Hamilton, a piece of musical theater in which historical roles clearly hijacked from white Americans are played by minority cast members. When the producers of Hamilton put out a casting call asking for only non-white actors, members of the Actors’ Equity complained. Here’s what Zeba Blay of The Huffington Post wrote in response:
[W]hat makes “Hamilton” work so well is the fact that it’s a commentary on America’s past through the prism of America’s present, its future. It works because the historically white, male founding fathers are being played by a predominantly non-white cast of blacks and Latinos…what would the musical look like if Alexander Hamilton wasn’t played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Aaron Burr wasn’t played by Leslie Odom, Jr, but instead the characters were played by two capable, talented white actors? The show would likely still be entertaining, but the context and the conversation would change. It’s like suggesting that “For Colored Girls…” or “The Color Purple” have an all-white cast. It’s a completely different show.
So, it turns out that cultural appropriation – re-imagining ideas outside their factual contexts – is fine when minorities do it to whites, but terrible when whites do it to minorities.
Or perhaps this entire conversation is idiotic. Perhaps we ought to present works of art as they are written, instead of bowing to the politically correct sentiments of the oversensitive. As a Jew, I have never demanded that the anti-Semitic Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice be rewritten to make Shylock either a gentile or a hero. Art tells us about what the artists were thinking, and carries with it universalities we can only learn from those highly particular and time-sensitive thoughts.
But art’s not the point here. Political enforcement is. And when politics trumps art, art dies.
