Theatre censorship: An unceasing (un)official menace?

The chapter frames the question of theatre censorship from a historical and critical perspective to introduce iterations of censorship across national territories and centuries by interrogating how its operation evolved from official structures to informal environments. This exploration of censorship establishes the continuity of control over the stage, which would implicitly confirm it retains a power over the audience, but which also identifies it as a platform where a number of entities act as censors (including self-censorship) for fear of reception. In analysing traditional structures and other forms of censorship, artistic responses to censorship, taboos, and specific contexts, this introductory chapter and the volume that accompanies it propose a comprehensive (though never exhaustive) study of theatre censorship at a time of increasing limitations to freedom of expression.