Play asks: Are you better than Taliban?

It is a question calculated to provoke. Do you think you are morally superior to the Taliban?

And only one in five in the audience answered yes, as a new play about free speech, censorship and Islam opened to rave reviews at the National Theatre last night.

Can We Talk About This?, by East End physical theatre company DV8, prompted gasps from an audience which was presented with a catalogue of abuses attributed to religious fundamentalism.

The piece mixes dance and verbatim dialogue from interviews to explore how sexual equality and freedom of speech have run up against militant Islamism, from the fatwa imposed on Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses to the furore over cartoons of Mohammed in Denmark.

It also raises the case of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch film director who was murdered in 2004 after making a movie critical of Islam.

The work was prompted by the reaction director Lloyd Newson encountered when he broached Islamic attitudes to homosexuality among his own liberal friends — and how they were willing to criticise other religions but not Islam.

The first-night audience appeared jolted but applauded the show’s boldness. Bryan Woltjen, 33, a designer from Deptford, said: “There was a tangible feeling of controversy and shock.” Derek Clark, 43, a social worker of Westminster, added: “It was hugely thought-provoking. The issue of self-censorship is absolutely current.”

Aemilia Giugicelli, 26, a dancer from Dundee, said: “It didn’t make any compromise which I really respect and loved.” And theatre director Matthew Gould, 45, said he thought that by the end of the piece many more people would have claimed moral superiority over the Taliban: “I think if you come along as a Muslim extremist you would be offended, but this play has done its research — it is not just done from a theatrical point of view.”

The plaudits continued on Twitter with commentators including writer Joan Smith hailing it as the “most exciting theatre I’ve seen in 4 years”. But Rio Wiltshire, 17, a student from Luton, said: “It was borderline racist. It was supposed to be multicultural but Islam was the only culture mentioned.”