American Notes Culture

The Theater of Nations festival, scheduled by the International Theater Institute in Baltimore this month, received little notice--until Animal Farm got in the act. Then came squeals and squawks. The ITI, which is sponsored by the U.N., had asked the British National Theater to put on its stage production of George Orwell's book, a pointed antitotalitarian satire that is a no-no behind the Iron Curtain. Moscow, hearing of the booking, grunted nyet. Fearing a festival-wrecking boycott, Institute President Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright, got Sir Peter Hall, the National Theater director, to agree to stage Farm independently, not as part of the festival. Now Hall is raising a squawk: Censorship! No, replies Soyinka: the booking was scratched only to ensure that the festival does not "cease to exist." Rejoins Hall: Soyinka's rationalization was "double-talk worthy of Squealer," the propagandistic pig in Animal Farm.