The Secret Woman
The Secret Woman is an article published in the Weekly Dispatch on 18 february 1912.
The Secret Woman
Free Seats for Censored Play as Protest Against the Lord Chamberlain.
The dramatised version of Mr. Eden Phillpotts's novel "The Secret Wonsan" is the subject of the latest protest against the Lord Chamberlain's censorship. The play was to have been produced for public performance at the Kingsway Theatre, London, but was refused a licence on the ground that it contained improper passages. The Lord Chamberlain was prepared to grant a licence if these passages were removed, but the author refused to make the suggested omissions. Mr. Granville Barker and his wife, Miss Lillah McCarthy, have now granted the use of the Kingsway Theatre for the performance of the play at six matinées, commencing on February 22, which will be open to all who write for free seats, and which will, therefore, be technically private, and thereby not subject to licence.
A feature of the dispute is that the most definite and emphatic protest yet made against the censorship has been signed by twenty-four of the most distinguished novelists, playwrights, critics, and men of letters, including Mr. William Archer, Mr. J. M. Barrie, Mr. R. C. Carton, Mr. Joseph Conrad, Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch, Sir A. Conan Doyle, Mr. John Galsworthy, Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. Anthony Hope, Mr. Maurice Hewlett, Mr. Henry James, Mr. George Moore, Professor Gilbert Murray, Sir Arthur Pinero, Mr. George Bernard Shaw, Mr. H. G. Wells, and Mr. I. Zangwill.
