Mustn't Do It!
by Jo M Van Ijssel de Schepper-Becker, translated by Laurence Senelick

A domestic comedy whose homosexual character is part of an ordinary family that views his sexual orientation as unnatural.

When the play was first produced in 1922, it enjoyed two performances and then was quietly removed from the repertory as too progressive for its time.

It is, however, just right for ours.“Highly amusing.”

—Pieter Liefhebber, Der Telegraaf“It goes without saying for the play MUSTN’T DO IT!

is a real curiosity for the audience eighty years on because gay liberation has taken place in the meantime … A fine monument to bygone manners, outdated norms and values, and irrational fears.

At the same time the play comes across as a radically up-to-date human document about sorrow and despair.”

—Hans Oranje, Trouw“A mixture of earthy humor and high drama.”

—Michel, The Personal in Culture“Out Came the First Coming-Out Play.”

—The Gay and Lesbian Review World-wide“The most amusing play I have seen in the last few years.

Everything worked.

The acting was so authentic that I really felt I was in the oppressive household of yore.”

—André Gieling