(UPDATE: MDA's statement below) Poet-playwright-director Elangovan’s latest play Stoma has been denied an Arts Entertainment licence by the Media Development Authority. The Agni Kootthu (Theatre Of Fire) production was scheduled to run at The Substation from Jan 17 to 19. It’s the third play from the 1997 SEA Write Awardee to have been banned after the English and Malay versions of Talaq in 2000 and Smegma in 2006. The licence was withheld due to “sexually explicity, blasphemous and offensive references and language which would be denigrating to the Catholic and the wider Christian community”, according to MDA’s letter, which was posted on the Agni Kootthu Facebook page. Here’s the synopsis of Stoma on The Substation’s website, which already carried an advisory regarding the play's “mature content”. “A Catholic priest who was defrocked and removed from the ministry over sex abuse allegations is visited by an internet sex-chat contact.  Her visitation ignites an examination of his conscience and his past transgressions surface as reminiscences to purify his soul. He confesses his sins to seek redemption and when it is fulfilled, the actual sex-chat contact walks in.” The company was initially scheduled for a meeting with MDA regarding the licence tomorrow, Jan 9, but was given the letter earlier tonight instead. There will be no plans of staging it privately, said Elangovan, who will instead be focusing his attention on one of his earlier plays, Dogs, which will be staged in Perth in February. He said he's also working on a new play scheduled for later this year. In the meantime, those who have already bought tickets are advised to get a refund from The Substation.

***

Ironically (or not?), we did a 2012 wrap up looking at censorship in the arts not so long ago. To recap, here's what The Substation artistic director Noor Effendy Ibrahim shared with us. "No doubt there is this sense of opening up on alternative and controversial ideas in art, such as those on ethnicity, religion, politics, and sexuality. But this sense should not lull the arts community into complacency, thinking that state censorship has been totally put away ... The need for an arts entertainment licence clearly demonstrates how active the machinery of state censorship and regulation is today, though interestingly and encouragingly there are now avenues for open dialogues with MDA and related state agencies to discuss and negotiate censorship and openness. I feel this opening up and relaxation is only taking place horizontally where diverse ideas (both safe and alternative) are permitted to be presented, but what is still of great concern is that the vertical space may not have increased much, if at all. The glass ceiling is still low. There is still much constraint and suppression on how ideas (and this includes what would be traditionally safe and permitted ideas) can and are to be manifested in art, and even who (which artists/practitioners) can do so."

*** The MDA has released this statement regarding Stoma: "MDA has rejected the arts entertainment licence application for the play titled Stoma. The play’s explicit description of sexual acts with Catholic and Christian iconography has exceeded MDA’s Classification Framework for Art Performances which stipulates that content should not denigrate religion.  To acknowledge the plurality of perspectives in society, arts performances are rarely disallowed.  As such, it was only after careful deliberation that the decision on Stoma was arrived at. In making the decision, the MDA consulted its Arts Consultative Panel (ACP), a citizen-led content advisory committee comprising 40 members of various races, religions and ages, for arts performances. An overwhelming majority of the members found the content to be explicit, blasphemous and of a nature offensive to the Catholic and the wider Christian community."