It is the very model of a major modern racism row: a US production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic comic opera The Mikado has been criticised for being insensitive to Japanese people by using ‘yellowface’ make-up.
The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGSP) faced a backlash after its promotional materials showed what one critic in the US described as “cringe-worthy photos of actors in yellowface”. The term referred to the use of white actors who had been made-up to look “Japanese”.
The row has prompted the New York company to cancel the production altogether and replace it with The Pirates of Penzance. Some commentators in the US have also called the 1885 work racist and said it should be shelved.
But the backlash has led to its own backlash, with senior directors in the UK defending the work against charges of racism, although they conceded that using yellowface make up was insensitive.
Sir Jonathan Miller, who directed one of the most successful productions of The Mikado in recent years, said: “It is amazing that anyone who could think the operetta was Japanese could find their way to the bus stop”.
Sir Jonathan added: “Anyone who can find their own way to the lavatory without advice will know perfectly well it has no connection whatever with the Japanese; there’s nothing Japanese about it from start to finish. It’s not racist.”
He added, however, that the New York production should not have used the make-up on white actors.
John Savournin, who directed a new production of The Mikado for the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, currently touring the UK, said: “It was only a matter of time until the point was raised thoroughly enough to cause someone to cancel the show.
“The Mikado shouldn’t be seen as racist, it doesn’t need to be. Though it is healthy we’re asked to be more alert to those sensitive issues. The piece is over a century old and in some respects it will be dated.”
He added: “There are issues but it is certainly not necessary to stick it in a drawer and pretend it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s important to make clear it’s about British society and do it in a tasteful way.”
It was insensitive to use make up on Caucasian actors, he said, and understood how that would give rise to accusations of racism.
On announcing the New York production had been cancelled, the NYGSP executive director David Wannen said the players had “never intended to give offence”.
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The company does intend to return to The Mikado to put on a production that is loyal to Gilbert and Sullivan but which “eliminates elements of performance practice that are offensive”, he added
Gilbert and Sullivan wrote The Mikado in 1885 as a satire on British politics of the time, using Japan as the backdrop because it was a place that was little known in Victorian Britain but was becoming the subject of growing interest in the West.
Martin Yates, chairman of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, pointed out: “The whole essence of The Mikado is it’s about England.”
