So much for all those jokes about the English being dandies and all soft around the middle. As it turns out, it's the Yankees who are the squirrely, lily-livered ones.
Two years after the Royal Shakespeare Company drew raves for a production of "As You Like It" that included a scene in which a dead rabbit was skinned and beheaded on stage to authentically depict the sometimes brutal nature of country living, that scene is causing an uproar among New York audiences.
The just-opened show will hit the Big Apple as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, minus the bunny bit, which was cut at the last minute after the festival received several complaints from people who'd read about the show in a Wall Street Journal preview and decried what they saw as animal cruelty. A festival spokesperson said the show's director didn't want to "distract from the larger production."
The original plan called for the rabbits to arrive DOA in New York, but that was put on ice after rabbit lovers began filling out an online petition over the weekend and calling the festival to complain about the continuing treatment of rabbits as second-class animal world citizens.
Though Shakes didn't leave stage directions for the rabbit scene, the U.K. production made it a central part of depicting the sometimes rough-and-tumble, rural life. British audiences reportedly screamed, laughed or applauded during the scene where a shepherd tosses rabbit pieces into a bucket.
Are American audiences too wimpy for on-stage rabbit skinning?
Add your comment/opinion here.
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