Focus Features

After Singapore citizens decried the STAR satellite channel censoring out the word “gay” from the Academy Award acceptance speeches by Milk’s Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black, they have a new bit of censorship to stand up to.  Theater director Glen Goei has staged a version of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest with an all male cast (playing all male roles).  The New York Times reports how Wilde scholarship indicates that such a reading perhaps stray far from the playwrights original intention: “there has been speculation that the name Cecily, one of the lead female characters, was a euphemism for a male prostitute and that the silver cigarette case that appears early in the first act was a gift typically given to male prostitutes at the time.” Since homosexuality is still a criminal offense in Singapore, Goei wanted to bring attention to gay rights in the play. The government response? A media regulator has strongly suggested that the theater “display an age advisory of “16 years and above” on all its publicity material, with the notice, “Re-interpretation, all-male cast.””

After Singapore citizens decried the STAR satellite channel censoring out the word “gay” from the Academy Award acceptance speeches by Milk’s Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black, they have a new bit of censorship to stand up to.  Theater director Glen Goei has staged a version of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest with an all male cast (playing all male roles).  The New York Times reports how Wilde scholarship indicates that such a reading perhaps stray far from the playwrights original intention: “there has been speculation that the name Cecily, one of the lead female characters, was a euphemism for a male prostitute and that the silver cigarette case that appears early in the first act was a gift typically given to male prostitutes at the time.” Since homosexuality is still a criminal offense in Singapore, Goei wanted to bring attention to gay rights in the play. The government response? A media regulator has strongly suggested that the theater “display an age advisory of “16 years and above” on all its publicity material, with the notice, “Re-interpretation, all-male cast.””