'Kingdom' explores dramatic censorship

Married actors Todd Weeks and Kate Blumberg rehearse a scene from "Kingdom City" at La Jolla Playhouse.

In 1953, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible a story set amid the 17th-century Salem witch trials as a response to attacks on intellectual freedom under the guise of rooting out Communism.

In 2006, a school district in Fulton, Mo., canceled a planned production of the Miller play which had long since become a classic and a staple of student reading lists because of worries over a plot thread of an extramarital affair.

Sheri Wilner. David Brooks

Controversies over banned school productions, of course, have been around forever, and they continue today, sometimes involving even innocuous-seeming shows: Witness the recent dust-up in Pennsylvania over a canceled staging of the comedy Monty Pythons Spamalot, apparently because of a scene in which two men discover their love for each other.

But the Missouri cancellation, which earned press in The New York Times and elsewhere, felt particularly alarming because it was The Crucible it was the irony of a play that was written to condemn censorship (itself) being censored, says playwright Sheri Wilner.

And because its such an esteemed work, adds Wilner, if a play such as that was up for debate, then really all of literature felt up for debate.

The event prompted Wilner to write her own play one thats about to receive its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse.

Kingdom City, which begins performances today, was born partly out of anger, but also out of fear, says Wilner, who has been working on the piece for some seven years.

Yet while her play takes a critical look at censorship, Wilner also says its meant to be much more than a polemic.

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'Kingdom' explores dramatic censorship