Simon Gray savages Nick Hytner over Islam

Simon Gray (pictured), the playwright and memoirist, has launched a biting attack on the National Theatre’s esteemed but touchy creative director, Nicholas Hytner. In an interview with this month’s Standpoint magazine, Gray pans the National for taking a pussy-footed attitude to Islam while being "fearless" towards easy targets.

"The National Theatre has an orthodoxy," Gray argues. "I remember Nick saying, very proudly, that they'd put on the Jerry Springer show, that they were fearless in attacking Christianity. But somehow you didn't hear his voice when that Sikh play [Behzti] was taken off [after protests about rape and incest scenes at a Birmingham theatre]. I can't imagine a play that’s violently opposed to Islam. You can't be – publicly, so to speak, and certainly not at the National.

"It seems to me a very easy sort of liberalism that allows only yourself, so to speak, to be beaten up. I don't think you should be so proud of putting on Jerry Springer – the Opera." (Continued below)

While Hytner, who has described himself as "a member of all sorts of interesting minorities", has not defended himself, a spokesman at the NT is indignant about Gray’s remarks. "So much of what he's said is factually incorrect. It’s ridiculous. Nicholas has never been anti-Christian, that's not what Jerry Springer was about. And when Behzti was cancelled he was extremely outspoken about it and criticised the police and politicians."