Ralph Fiennes: Trigger warnings for ‘soft’ audiences should be ditched

ralph fiennes: trigger warnings for ‘soft’ audiences should be ditched

Ralph Fiennes is currently starring in Macbeth alongside Indira Varma – Marc Brenner

Ralph Fiennes has called for trigger warnings to be ditched and said stage performances ought to leave audiences “shocked and disturbed”.

The actor, currently starring in an immersive touring production of Macbeth alongside Indira Varma, said the aspect of surprise is “what makes theatre so exciting”.

Pre-performance trigger warnings for violence, language, loud noises and even references to smoking among other things have become a commonplace fixture of modern theatre.

But Fiennes, 61, has now joined Sir Ian McKellen and Christopher Biggins in calling for them to be scrapped.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, he was asked if attendees had gone too “soft”.

He said: “I think audiences have. We didn’t used to have trigger warnings. There are very disturbing scenes in Macbeth, terrible murders and things, but I think the impact of theatre is that you should be shocked and you should be disturbed.

“I don’t think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young we never had trigger warnings before a show.”

He added: “Shakespeare’s plays are full of murder and full of horror, and as a young student and lover of the theatre I never experienced trigger warnings like, ‘oh, by the way, in King Lear, Gloucester’s going to have his eyes pulled out’.

“Theatre needs to be alive and in the present. It’s the shock, it’s the unexpected, that’s what makes the theatre so exciting.”

ralph fiennes: trigger warnings for ‘soft’ audiences should be ditched

Fiennes raised the issue while appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show – Jeff Overs/BBC

Although he was in favour of ending trigger warnings, he said cautionary notes about strobe lighting and other factors that may harm an individual’s health should remain in place.

Fiennes’s complaints come after Sir Ian last year criticised “ludicrous” warnings for his play Frank and Percy at The Other Palace in London.

The theatre’s website warned attendees that the show featured strong language, sexual references and discussions of bereavement and cancer.

Executives of London’s Globe Theatre were also rebuked in 2022 after warning ticket holders that a performance of Julias Caesar contained “depictions of war, self-harm and suicide, stage blood and weapons including knives”.

The Roman emperor was famously assassinated inside Rome’s Senate House by a group of nobles who feared the dictator had become too powerful.

Actor Christopher Biggins criticised the warning at the time and said: “Do we have to have signs for everything under the sun? It’s a joke. What they are trying to do is insulting to the mentality of theatregoers.”

Fiennes also spoke to Laura Kuenssberg about his campaign against plans to build “an energy hub” near Aldeburgh in Suffolk which brings in electricity from wind farms.

“We believe that this will have a devastating negative impact on local communities, farming, fishing, tourism, when it can be done better, which is offshore hubs.

“This is a long-term legacy for our country. This is the infrastructure going into the future, it might be more expensive in the short, but in the mid-term, we’re convinced it’s not. But this is really vital that we get this right.

“And the solution, the implementation of this structure is destructive and I’ve been looking, I’ve been excited to look at what the Belgians and the Danes are doing by these offshore infrastructures, which are then ecologically friendly, and they take their cabling onshore to a brownfield site, which is critical.

“This is a greenfield site proposal.”

He said that the proposals had wider implications as building “new clean energy infrastructure is really, really vital” and called the current proposals a “disaster”.

ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) and National Grid have both previously defended the plans.

SPR said it would help climate change efforts and they are trying to protect “the local environment and minimise the potential onshore impacts of the construction programme”.

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