Intimidation Factor

Because of tightening FCC restrictions, an adaptation of a play focusing on passages in the lives of two homosexual men has been sanitized for broadcast on nonprofit KCRW (89.9 FM). The toned-down radio version of Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay’s “Remember Me”--which revolves around a former teacher and student who are also ex-lovers--is tentatively set to air in March on the Santa Monica-based station, with possible NPR broadcast to follow.

Jacqueline DesLauriers, the program’s exec producer, admitted that the station cleaned up sections of the material because “the FCC has become both more strict and more ambiguous in recent times, and we feel it’s better not to tempt fate. You could end up wasting time and resources, defending a production, when the time and resources are better spent in producing others.”

The recent flap over financing by the National Endowment for the Arts of controversial works did not play a part in the self-censorship, DesLauriers said, since the program received no NEA money.

“We kept the artistic integrity of the piece,” she insisted. “If you’re not going to do that, why produce a play at all?”

Dennis Christopher, who portrays the ex-student (Joe Spano plays the teacher), said, “We had to tone down all references to sex and religion.” The word “Jesus,” when used as an expletive, was replaced by “gosh,” he said. And dialogue about sex “was couched in careful language . . . real, living people do not talk about sex as if they’re in a lab.”

Despite the cautionary changes, Christopher stressed that he’s proud of the production. “I just think it’s a shame that people are scared of what they can say. . . . And the tendency is to err in the direction of being too careful.”