1. Corpus Christi (Terrence McNally, 1998)
Five controversial plays...
Now, he gets asked all the time about Orwell’s prescience, and for his views on the world. Trump is a regular topic, fake news another and Brexit gets some airtime. He thinks we’ve been too carefree in giving up our data, and becoming complicit in being surveilled. Beyond that, he has a fatalistic view. ‘‘You ask how do we get out of this? All you can do is make changes in your own life and hope they leak out into the world. I know that sounds twee, but you can.’’ Laughing, he adds, ‘‘I recycle.’’
But, of course, he can have a wider impact here. When Auckland audiences leave the theatre, their stomachs will hopefully be untroubled but their minds won’t be. He won’t be there, having already moved on to an Australian comedy called After Dinner, but he hopes they leave pondering the same questions as him, asking whether ‘‘our freedoms and our liberty are quite what they seem. I also hope they leave wanting to question some things they are told. That would be a good outcome.’’ Jesus and the disciples were gay? Inevitably, McNally got death threats, and as we reported recently, the New Zealand censors’ office still gets complaints of an imaginary film version of the play.
2. Lysistrata (Aristophanes, 411 BC)
Still performed today, but banned in the US and Russia at various times from the 19th to the 21st century, it advanced the notion of women holding power, both sexually and politically.
3. Hair! (Rado, Ragni and McDermot, 1968)
Other plays brought us full frontal nudity, but Hair! is the one everyone remembers, thanks to the entire cast appearing nude on stage together –
"I hope they leave wanting to question some things they are told. That would be a good outcome." Corey McMahon