I was challenging Mr. Rogers’ flippant dismissal of the possibility that someone might get offended by what was portrayed (”The only thing I can think of that might be objectionable: near the end of the play, when Bottom kills himself repeatedly (and hysterically), one of the methods he employs is cutting off his penis.”) by putting it in a comparative context. (And you noted that the comparative context was indeed offensive.)

No one is telling you what you can or cannot read. The point I was making was that it was not unreasonable for the theater to advise the FrontBurnian quoted by Mr. Rogers that the play contained sexual content that might be offensive.

I would also observe that Mr. Rogers redacted a part of the FrontBurnian’s quote, presumably because he deemed it offensive. Isn’t that ironic? You should be more upset with Mr. Rogers than with the theater. They merely warned. Mr. Rogers censored — effectively determining for you what you could not read.

So I’m confused as to how I misunderstood what you wrote. People may be offended at something that is not in this play? As far as I can tell, female genital mutilation isn’t presented – pantomimed or not.

I 100% agree with you that many, if not all, females WOULD be offended at such. But apparently it’s not in this presentation.

My point is that I’m tired of righteous people getting all riled up and trying to decide what I can or cannot see or read. I thought that fear of angered Baptist soccer moms storming the ticket booth for refunds MIGHT have been why the DTC person thought someone may not want to bring their child.

Maybe a stretch, but it’s happened before.

So basically every play, movie, song, book and probably written conversation made must now be thoroughly vetted to make sure that no one, ever, anywhere, anyhow could possibly be even slightly, peripherally offended by anything included.

Oh wait – actually, we have to include the possibility that people might get offended by something that ISN’T included, right? I mean, I MIGHT get offended if the movie “Airplane” was actually about a tugboat, and one of the pilots was actually an ex-football star instead of an ex-basketball star, and the other pilot didn’t have a drinking problem, but only had one leg, and….

Everyone just needs to stop getting all pissy and realize sometimes things are gonna rub them the wrong way.

As far as the death by dismemberment scene, I feel re-attached whenever I see it.