Jerry Springer: The Opera - Protests and Controversy

Protests and Controversy

In addition to the Christian protests at the BBC facilities, several venues throughout the 2006 tour saw protests. The Manchester Evening News reviewer saw the protests as misplaced, writing "an audacious and scandalous, yet ultimately moral and challenging show that's recommended to anyone who can accept the odd dose of outrage in their lives." Another reviewer recommended, "don’t get your knickers in such a twist, drop ‘em and enjoy yourself."

• In Plymouth, at the preview night at the Theatre Royal, a group of about 40 Christian Voice supporters turned out to sing hymns and hand out leaflets to the audience as they entered the theatre.
• In Birmingham, performances attracted a few protesters, and more commotion was made by audience members arguing when being presented with leaflets.
• In York, leaflets were handed out by small numbers of Salvation Army and Christian Voice protesters.
• In Manchester, 10 protestors appeared on the opening night, but these were outnumbered by an anti-protest of people holding up signs for freedom of speech. Subsequent nights saw a single regular protestor, or none.
• In Oxford, several elderly Christian protesters turned out.
• In Cambridge, a handful of protesters handed out leaflets on opening night. Protestors were particularly present on Good Friday, the events of which are referenced in Act III of the show.
• In Edinburgh, one man from Christian Voice handed out leaflets on a few of the nights.
• In Glasgow, a group of Christian protestors stood outside the theater waving placards, singing Hymns, handing out leaflets and taking photographs of patrons.
• In Bristol, about 100 protesters appeared on opening night, particularly mothers with young children. Many came from the Carmel Evangelical Church in Brislington. Their leaflets stated that the Bristol Old Vic had edited a "classic production" to avoid offending Muslims but did not specify which production. All the protesters had left by the interval.
• In Newcastle upon Tyne, over 300 protestors appeared on opening night.
• In Brighton, two protestors arrived at several of the performances. After the Saturday matinee, Christian Voice protestors appeared.
• In Liverpool, a group of protestors gathered across the road from the theatre singing hymns, whilst small children handed out leaflets about Christianity.
• In St Andrews, a large group of protestors gathered across the street from the student union of the University of St Andrews, where a student production of the Jerry Springer opera was being performed. The performance was one of the largest and most elaborate ever put on by the University, and extra security was brought on board to ensure the safety of students as they entered and left the union. On the opening night, the cast received a standing ovation, despite the leaflets being distributed outside by members of the Christian Voice.
• 100 church leaders in Cardiff and throughout south Wales signed a letter expressing their wishes for the show to be cancelled. The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, expressed his concern, stating that the show was 'gratuitously offensive'. In further comments he stated, 'The producer of this opera says that if he manages to incite religious hatred then the opera has done its job: I think that is a terrible intention for an opera to have.' Hundreds of Christians protested outside the Wales Millennium Centre, brandishing placards and singing hymns to theatregoers.
• Stewart Lee said that one of the most vitriolic reactions to the show was during its run at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen. (The Christian Institute pushed for supporters to lobby local council members, directors on the board of Aberdeen Performing Arts and the Press and Journal. Only a few protesters picketed the theatre, handing out leaflets.)

The opposition by Christian Voice caused the cancer charity Maggie's Centres to reject a £3,000 donation from Jerry Springer: The Opera. Christian Voice threatened to picket their centres, which provide palliative care to cancer sufferers and their families. It claimed it had warned the charity that accepting cash from a show full of "filth and blasphemy" would be a public relations disaster.

In January 2007 Christian Voice, represented by Stephen Green, attempted to prosecute BBC director-general Mark Thompson for blasphemy over the show. A summons was refused due to lack of prima facie evidence that a crime had been committed, and a provision of the 1968 Theatres Act which enshrines the right of free expression in theatrical works. An appeal to the High Court was dismissed on 5 December 2007, with the decision of the lower court upheld on all counts and ruling that it was reasonable to conclude that the play "in context" could not be considered as blasphemous.

Asked about the controversy during an interview with The Observer in 2009, Lee stated:

If you have been on the verge of becoming a millionaire and that has not happened because of far-right pressure groups, and your work has been banned and taken apart, and you've been threatened with prosecution, and the police have advised people involved with your production to go into hiding, and bed and breakfasts won't have the cast to stay because they're blasphemers, and you have to cross a BNP picket line to go to work in Plymouth, you do start to think, well, what can be worse that that?

Asked if the experience had an impact on his stand-up comedy, Lee replied: "It did make me feel there was not much point ever trying to reach a mass audience with anything interesting and provocative. You just run the risk of being misunderstood on a large scale".