Bedworth panto in racism storm

A THEATRE has changed the name of two of its Aladdin pantomime characters - after accusations of racism.

Bedworth Civic Hall became embroiled in the racism row over the names of two roles Chow Mein Slave of the Ring/ Villager and PC Pong Ping.

They had been advertised by the theatre on the casting website Spotlight but quickly came under fierce criticism. Actor and writer Maryam Hamidi slammed the “offensive casting” on Twitter.

“Have yourselves a racist little xmas”. @SpotlightUK maybe @BedworthCivic could er, maybe remove this offensive casting for “Chow Mein Slave of the Ring” for the panto this year.

A statement from Bedworth Civic Hall said: “It has been brought to the attention of the production team of Aladdin that character names may have caused unintentional offence in a Spotlight cast profiling.

“We apologise for any distress caused. They have been changed with immediate effect.”

General manager Tim Norton added: “I hope that this shows how seriously we take complaints and concerns and that they are dealt with promptly and effectively.

“Once again, as director/ producer of the Civic Hall Pantomime Company I apologise most sincerely for any unintentional offence.”

Norton added that Bedworth Civic Hall takes full responsibility for the advert and that casting director Benjamin Newsome had “no input” into the wording of the roles.

Others also stepped in to criticise the roles on Twitter.

@JBRAgent said it was staggering that nobody at the Warwickshire theatre had questioned the decision before.

The number of people who would have been involved in this and didn’t once question it before it even got on to Spotlight staggers me.

July 24, 2018 @DuckThieves said they hoped “any racist tropes” had been removed from the pantomime.

How tone deaf do you have to be to write characters like this? I hope you have also removed any racist tropes from the pantomine as well?