Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Edinburgh Fringe faces ‘publicly licensed racism’ allegations over a play

Recently Fringe cancelled the show of comedian Jerry Sadowitz.

Edinburgh Fringe faces ‘publicly licensed racism’ allegations over a play

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been urged to introduce new guidelines after Asians claimed they were subjected to 'publicly-licenced racism' during a show, according to reports.

Campaign group, British East and South East Asians working in the Theatre and Screen industry (BEATS) demands new guidelines be introduced next year following the Tea Ceremony play, in which a white male actor appears as a geisha, a Japanese hostess trained to entertain men.


In the play, a white male actor, Marios Ioannou, appears as a geisha. The group claimed that the show is 'extremely triggering and traumatic' to those who 'bear historical weight' of historical abuses, media reports said.

The BEATS said that guidelines would prevent 'publicly licensed racism on stage'.

The statement from BEATS said: "We have no wish to see a sanitised and conservative fringe. The problem is, though, that with outdated racist performance tropes, a sanitised and conservative fringe is exactly what we get."

Meanwhile, the show’s producer has rejected any accusations of racism and Ioannou, a Cypriot performer, termed the claims as 'unfair'.

“I am in contact with the Japanese people who worked on this performance, because they did work on it and they didn’t believe it was inappropriate. We are working on an answer from all of us," the actor was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

“It is a very big discussion about cultural appropriation in art, and we are happy to open up a dialogue. But I was surprised this was not spoken about while we were there, only after we left, which is not very nice. There will be another staging of the Tea Ceremony in London, so it would be good to sort things out before that. We were not racist, so it was a very unnecessary comment.”

The Tea Ceremony play sees the geisha begin to question her role as a servant and entertainer. It leads the audience on a journey of modern-day abuse, child labour, human trafficking, torture and slavery, and the high price we pay for our joy and greed, reports said.

The latest event happened just weeks after the Fringe cancelled the show of comedian Jerry Sadowitz due to 'homophobic, misogynistic and racist' allegations.

Recently, another Edinburgh Fringe show, Shannon Matthews: The Musical, was also stooped into controversy.

Dark comedy group K*** and the Gang have sold out their four-week run of 'Shannon Matthews: The Musical'. The performance was based on the true story of the faked abduction of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, who was reported missing in 2008.

One of the most outspoken critics included Dewsbury's Tory MP Mark Eastwood, who helped in the search for missing Shannon in 2008, and local Labour councillor Mussarat Pervaiz who blasted the show's trivialisation as 'disgusting'.

Dewsbury West Councillor Ammar Anwar said the musical is 'bang out of order' and 'should have never been allowed'.

Nine-year-old Shannon was the victim of a faked kidnapping by her mother Karen Matthews in 2008, who drugged, tied up and hid her own daughter as she plotted to pocket a £50,000 reward.

More For You

Liz Kendall

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will outline welfare reforms in a green paper next week, followed by chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement on 26 March.

Ministers may drop plan to freeze disability benefits: Report

MINISTERS are considering dropping plans to freeze Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for a year, according to a report.

Initial proposals suggested PIP would not rise in line with inflation, but strong opposition from Labour MPs has prompted a review.

Keep ReadingShow less
BBC settles age and sex discrimination case
BBC headquarters in Central London.
Getty Images

BBC settles age and sex discrimination case

THE BBC on Friday (14) said it had settled a case with four female journalists who claimed they lost their jobs because of their sex and age.

Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera, who have all presented on the BBC's television channels, claimed they lost their jobs following a "rigged" recruitment exercise.

Keep ReadingShow less
Indian student in US self-deports after visa revocation

In this screenshot from a video posted by @Sec_Noem via X on March 14, 2025, Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at United State’s Columbia University, leaves the country after her visa was revoked by the Department of State. (@Sec_Noem via PTI Photo)

Indian student in US self-deports after visa revocation

AN INDIAN student at Columbia University, whose visa was revoked for allegedly supporting Hamas, has self-deported, says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, came to the US on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, and her visa was revoked on March 5.

Keep ReadingShow less
'Companies with diverse leadership are better positioned for growth'

From LtoR- Lord Karan Bilimoria, Sir Trevor Phillips, Seema Malhotra MP, David Tyler and Nathan Coe

'Companies with diverse leadership are better positioned for growth'

COMPANIES with diverse leadership are better positioned for sustainable growth, improved decision-making, and will connect better with multicultural markets, equalities minister Seema Malhotra has said.

She added that the government will soon launch a public consultation on their approach to mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with  Wang Yi (right)

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with Wang Yi (right)

S Jaishankar: ‘Delhi’s global interests shape its regional ties'

INDIA today sees itself as a global power or, at least, a country with global interests, which is why Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken of its equation with Russia, China and notably the Middle East.

India’s external affairs minister was in conversation last Wednesday (5) in London with Bronwen Maddox, director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House.

Keep ReadingShow less