This is related to the now-closed thread about free speech in the UK.
Keith Johnstone, one of the founding fathers of modern imorpvisational comedy, structured his performances as sporting events (as opposed to theatrical events) because in the UK at the time (circa 1965), actors and comedians had to get the content and “significant gestures” of their performances approved ahead of time by somebody at the Lord Chamberlain’s office. (Johnstone would complain to visiting Russian faculty about his lack of creative freedom; they were suitably outraged. He eventually moved to Canada, “arguably a more liberal society.”) This raises a few questions:
–Is this still required? If not, when did it stop? Can Johnstone ever return to England without fear of beheading?
–What is the function of the Lord Chamberlain? Does the US have an equivalent? (John Waters has amusing stories about the Maryland Censor Board.)
The Lord Chamberlain doesn’t have anything to do with the Lord Chamberalin’s office, he’s just a member of the royal household who does a variety of jobs fot it.
Actually, MC, the page from the Queen’s website is less than accurate, even when discussing the structure of her own Household.
The requirement that plays be licensed by the Lord Chamberlain was not abolished until 1968 with the passage of the Theatres Act of that year. Until then all plays had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain’s Examiner of Plays who had powers to order specific changes to scripts. Those powers had been introduced by the 1737 Licensing Act. The reason why it was the Lord Chamberlain’s office which was given those powers was that the Lord Chamberlain, who was in charge of theatrical performances at court, had exercised a general oversight over the London theatres since the sixteenth century. There had even been times when the London theatre companies had been formally part of the Royal Household. It also needs to be remembered that in that period the government claimed the right to license all books prior to publication and that this could involve them demanding changes.
One aspect of the system survives, in that the 1968 Act requires that copies of plays which have been performed but not printed must be desposited with the British Library.
The claim that ‘Despite its name, [the Lord Chamberlain’s Office] is as independent of the Lord Chamberlain as the other Departments’ is badly worded. The Lord Chamberlain’s Office is in fact directly answerable to the Lord Chamberlain, but then so are all the other Household departments. The Lord Chamberlain is the Royal Household’s equivalent of a chief executive. The confusion arises because the Lord Chamberlain only gained control over the other departments in the nineteenth century. The Lord Chamberlain’s Office administers those functions of the Lord Chamberlain which predate that amalgamation.