Tickets, Critics & Censorship: The Royal Court, The Spectator & the Arts Council of Great Britain 1969-70 (Report‪)‬

This article revisits a small, but immensely significant event in the history of the English Stage Company (ESC) at the Royal Court. It is a story that involves childish intransigence, monstrous egotism and low cunning matched against tacit diplomacy and a demonstration of English compromise at its most delightfully farcical. There is also a revelation that until now has been missing from existing accounts of the Royal Court; the incident also marks an important moment of transition, after which the relationship between the Arts Council and its funding clients changed irrevocably. The episode in question concerns the English Stage Company's decision