Families walk out of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre over raunchy sex scene in Charles Dickens play

'Raunchy scenes': Parents walked out of A Tale of Two Cities at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Fiona Simpson12 July 2017

Shocked parents walked out of a Charles Dickens play at a central London theatre with their children in tow because of a racy sex scene.

Audience members left the adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities performed at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre on Saturday after a character whipped off their underwear before a sex scene.

Despite the theatre's warnings that the play wasn’t aimed at young children, families were spotted leaving the show after character Sydney Carton paid a prostitute to remove her pants.

One spectator told the Sun: “There were children there who looked as young as six or seven. There was no warning on the website about adult content. They went ahead with the sex act knowing there were kids there.

Another added: "There was so much pointless use of the f-bomb and nudity."

The offending scene has since been removed from the play, a spokesman for the theatre said.

He said in a statement: "The production is billed as a “new play adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens” which seeks to frame the original, often shocking, story within a contemporary context.

"It is a three-hour play which is not aimed at or marketed to young children.

“At the first preview on Saturday night there were very few children amongst an adult audience of over 1,100. On arrival, those accompanying any children were spoken to individually and offered a refund for their party should they not wish to see the performance. The vast majority of the audience stayed for the entire show.

“As a brand new adaptation and production, the development of the script and staging continues during the preview period; indeed the brief fully-clothed scene with Sydney Carton and much of the strong language was removed from the production before the second preview on Monday.

“We have also updated our website with advisory information and have contacted all customers who have booked for future performances.”

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