HUNDREDS of Sikh protesters stormed a theatre and clashed with police during the performance of a controversial play depicting rape, corruption and murder in a temple.

Three police officers were injured, windows and equipment were smashed and fire alarms set off in the demonstration, which caused thousands of pounds of damage. Three men were arrested and released on police bail.

About a thousand Sikhs from around Britain had travelled to Birmingham to hold a week of peaceful protests outside the Repertory Theatre. But violence broke out on Saturday evening when demonstrators tried to enter the building.

A total of 85 officers, including 30 in riot gear, attempted to restore order as protesters pelted the building with eggs and ran inside. The theatre was forced to cancel the evening performance of Behzti (Dishonour) and an adaptation of The Witches by Roald Dahl.

Behzti was written by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, the Sikh playwright, who has reportedly received death threats. The theatre said yesterday that it “strongly deplored the illegal actions” of demonstrators, which resulted in the evacuation of the building containing more than 800 people.

No performance was scheduled for last night and the theatre said that it had not yet decided whether the play would continue its run tonight.

The play, billed as a black comedy, is about a foul-mouthed, widowed mother and the daughter for whom she is desperate to find a husband. During a visit to a Sikh temple, it emerges that the mother’s late husband had a homosexual affair with one of its elders before killing himself.

The elder has also sexually abused young girls in the temple (gurdwara), and ends up raping the daughter. The mother and one of his victims then kill him in the temple with a ceremonial Sikh sword.

Sam Marlowe, a Times critic who reviewed the play last week, wrote that it “was nothing if not provocative” and that “it was not hard to see what perturbed them (Birmingham’s Sikh community)”.

The setting of the play has outraged Sikh leaders, who wanted it changed from a temple to a community centre. They claim that Behzti mocks their religion, and Khalid Mahmood, the local MP, said that it had been written to cause maximum offence.

One witness said: “The crowd went crazy when they managed to storm the Rep . . . even when it was announced the play had been cancelled they refused to leave until the arrested men were released.”

Sewa Singh Mandha, the chairman of the Council of Sikh Gurdwaras, said of the theatre: “They keep saying the playwright has the right to her imagination but these imaginations could harm a community. This play will not help race relations in the city.” He said that a meeting had been arranged between Sikh leaders, theatre management and Paul Scott-Lee, the West Midlands Police Chief Constable.

A theatre spokesman said: “The theatre has taken the lead in consulting community members about the play and, as a result, several changes were made before it went into production. The theatre also invited the Sikh community to write a statement expressing its views. This has both been given to every audience member and also read out in the auditorium before each performance.

“Short of bowing to blatant censorship and cancelling the production, the Rep does not believe it could have done more to enable the community to have the freedom of speech that some of its members clearly wish to deny the playwright.”

SCENES OF HIGH DRAMA

Anti-English feeling resulted in violence at the Astor Place Opera House in New York in 1849. Thousands gathered outside a performance of Macbeth, demanding the replacement of an English actor, William Macready, with the American Edwin Forrest. The riots left 23 dead and more than a hundred wounded

Ubu Roi, a farce by Alfred Jarry, provoked a riot in 1896 at the French Theatre de L’Oeuvre. The audience was outraged by the scatalogical references and gluttonous hero

The premiere of Playboy of the Western World caused riots at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1907

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