LONDON — In a letter published in The Times of London, prominent theater figures and other artists expressed concern that the National Youth Theater had been pressured to cancel a new play, “Homegrown,” about young Islamic State recruits.
The play, an immersive production created by the director Nadia Latif and the playwright Omar El-Khairy, was inspired by the story of Khadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum, three East London teenagers who left seemingly normal lives to join the Islamic State earlier this year.
The National Youth Theater — a prestigious company of actors in their teens and early 20s – abruptly canceled the production in late July, two weeks before its planned Aug. 12 premiere.
In the letter in The Times, the signers — who include the playwright David Hare, the novelist Monica Ali, the artist Anish Kapoor, and Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the organization Index on Censorship — said, “we are deeply concerned by reports that the NYT may have been put under external pressure to change the location and then cancel the production.” They also called on the theater to “give a full account of what led to the decision” to cancel the play. They said that the “police, local authorities and arts organizations have a duty to respect and protect freedom of expression,” but did not explicitly specify who they believe pressured the company to cancel the production.
The company originally planned to stage the production, with more than 100 actors, at a school in Bethnal Green, close to where the girls lived. Earlier this summer the school decided not to rent the space to the company after learning about the production’s “themes,” according to a statement issued by the local council. The production moved to another school in nearby Camden, and then was canceled.
Ms. Latif and Mr. El-Khairy told The Guardian that they had been informed by National Youth Theater administrators that police had asked to read the script and had plans to attend the production in plainclothes uniforms.
But the Metropolitan Police Service posted a statement on its website saying that reports that the service was involved in the play’s cancellation were “plain wrong.”
In an emailed statement a spokesman for the National Youth Theater said: “The production of ‘Homegrown’ will no longer go ahead. After some consideration, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot be sufficiently sure of meeting all of our aims to the standards we set and which our members and audiences have come to expect. We can confirm that no external parties had any involvement in the decision to cancel the public presentation of ‘Homegrown.’” He declined to clarify whether the company was dissatisfied with the show’s artistic merits, or if it had other concerns.