End of a Run?

British playgoers have never been allowed to see the complete Victoria Regina, Broadway hit of 1935-36, because some of its characters represent living royalty. They missed the Negro miracle play, The Green Pastures, because its chief character was De Lawd. Officially, they never saw Manhattan's long-running Tobacco Road because of its shady morals.

These decisions--and similar ones involving, at one time or another, Shakespeare's King Lear, Wilde's Salome and Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado--were taken for British playgoers by the Lord Chamberlain who, along with such ancient duties as escorting the king to & from the royal carriage, has acted as Britain's theatrical censor since 1737. Last week the House of Commons debated a bill to end the censor's long engagement.

Opponents feared that some less benign censorship might replace the traditional office, now held by the 71-year-old Earl of Clarendon. But the House gave the bill a second-reading vote of 76 to 37 to push it along toward passage.

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