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As an impressionable teenager I was watching a student production at my drama school. My lack of an English Literature O Level meant I didn’t know my Chaucer so I was pleasantly surprised

when one of the actresses I had admired from afar stuck her bare bottom out of the window on the set. The Miller’s wife offers Absolom a kiss. She tells him she will stick her face out of

the window to be kissed. In fact, she gives him her bottom to kiss. Fast forward 30 years and I’m at another Drama School watching a student production. Big posters in the foyer advise that

“this production contains nudity” – and it did. Surprising for a musical but there you go. I found that – at the back of my mind throughout – I was wondering which of the young lovelies was

going to get their kit off. Turns out it was most of them. This had fundamentally altered how I viewed the production. Knowing one detail about the production skews the experience of

watching the show. The RSC’s recent production of _Macbeth_ features the inclusion of a stand-up comedy routine delivered by the Porter aimed squarely at those in the audience studying the

play for GCSE. The routine ended with the line: “Spoiler alert – you know he dies in the end.” I doubt many people go to see Shakespeare without knowing the story, so this spoiler alert

didn’t alter how the play was enjoyed. Although the stand-up was obviously not written by Shakespeare and so was enjoyably surprising. I am told that in some of the southern states of the

USA _Romeo and Juliet_ is taught with a “happy ending” to make it less depressing, and avoid a trigger. Those students would be surprised and upset were they ever to see a production using

Shakespeare’s original text. All the streaming services list seemingly endless warnings about dangerous bits of content, including “racist attitudes” and “smoking”, which really has me

clutching at my pearls. Several shows warn at the top that they contain “language” – imagine! Part of the enjoyment of watching any entertainment is the twists of the plot which come

unannounced, and yet prefigured. Like the punchline to a decent joke, you have all the information to know that the outcome is possible, but the actual resolution to the gag is unexpected.

The whole thing started with real concerns – there are medical conditions which cannot tolerate strobe lighting for example — but mostly this is art, and art should be shocking. I can tell

you the plot of the next Bond film. Bond is not cast, the script is not written, and no production has been announced, but I know – and you know – the plot. They are all the same, and that’s

what makes them fun. The talented production team find interesting and surprising ways to tell that same story in ways that keep our attention. Now the British Film Institute have announced

they will place trigger warnings on the existing Bond films. The trigger here being the reason we watch them. My granddaughter loves _Peppa Pig_. Surely it should warn parents that the show

… May Contain Pork. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more

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