Race row panto cancelled

A Devon pantomime at the centre of a racism row has been cancelled following threats of demonstrations by civil rights campaigners.

Snow White and the Seven Asylum Seekers was banned last month by the north Devon village of Merton, following concerns about accusations of racism. But the village of Langtree, five miles away, welcomed them, saying they believed there was nothing racist about the show.

Now writer and producer Bob Harrod has cancelled the show after the National Civil Rights Movement (NCRM) called on people to picket the panto. It said the show "inaccurately" portrayed asylum seekers as "dirty unwashed scroungers".

The show featured seven asylum seekers with the names Chemical Ali, Comical Ali, Back Ali, Dark Ali, Bowling Ali, Ali G and Ali-Kiss-Angel.

In the panto they all work illegally at a quarry near Merton and live in squalor in a cottage in the woods where they are portrayed as living off baked beans and never bathing.

Merton's village hall committee ordered Mr Harrod to change the title after taking advice from the Commission for Racial Equality and the Devon and Exeter Racial Equality Council.

But Mr Harrod refused and was going to take it to nearby Langtree, where rehearsals had started for the show next month. But after hearing from the police of the planned protest, he decided to pull the show.

He told BBC News Online: "The police wanted to meet us and someone in the village hall committee to try to defuse the situation. "But after the call I gave it a lot of thought, spoke to other members of the cast and decided it was getting too nasty. "It was a laugh at first, but there will be children coming and I don't want the risk of trouble. "I am afraid we have been beaten."

Mr Harrod maintains that the panto was not racist and was sympathetic to asylum seekers. He said: "These people who have got upset about the show only saw the title and assumed the rest. "That was one reason I was so determined to put it on." He added: "I am pretty despondent about the whole thing. "Perhaps I was a naive, but this is political correctness gone mad. "The whole country is going topsy turvy."

An NCRM spokesman said: "Hundreds of asylum seekers living in Devon face daily hostility including numerous brutal racist attacks. "Inaccurately portraying asylum seekers named Chemical Ali, Comical Ali, Back Ali, Dark Ali, Bowling Ali, Ali G, and Ali-Kiss-Angel, as dirty unwashed scroungers living in grotty conditions and claiming DSS money, is racist stereotyping, dangerous scapegoating or perpetuating hostility towards some of the most vulnerable in Britain today."
Source:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/3287353.stm