The Case of Theresa: Guernsey, the Holocaust and Theatre Censorship in the 1990s

In June 1990 the Guernsey Authorities refused to grant the English-born playwright, Julia Pascal, a license to perform her play Thérèse on the island. The play highlighted the collaboration of Guernsey residents in the rounding up of Jews and their subsequent deportation to concentration camps during the Second World War. It was performed to considerable critical acclaim, first in Newcastle and then in London. Despite its success in England, Theresa is still banned in Guernsey, the grounds of ‘bad language’ being cited as the reason, even though it is clear that this is a thinly-veiled excuse to justify an act of politically motivated censorship. This article will focus on the moral crisis that surrounds the reception of Pascal’s play, a reception which, fraught with contradiction and unease, forces audiences, readers and critics alike to re-examine received history.