Smegma, made up of 10 different short plays by controversial local playwright Elangovan, was to have been performed Saturday and Sunday by Agni Koothu, or Theater of Fire. Its characters include men who patronize underaged prostitutes, a pregnant suicide bomber and a foreign maid.

In an email sent to local and international media Friday evening, S. Thenmoli, president of Agni Koothu, said the Media Development Authority - which oversees all licensing for public arts and entertainment - approved the play on Tuesday.

MDA gave the play a rating of RA-18, restricting the audience to those over 18 years old, but on Friday told Thenmoli that the license had been withdrawn.

"After careful consideration, we find that the play undermines the values underpinning Singapore's multiracial, multi-religious society, and portrays Muslims in a negative light," said a copy of the MDA letter that Thenmoli forwarded to the media.

There were no details on what the Media Development Authority found objectionable and it was not immediately possible to reach officials from the department.

"The Media Development Authority's censorship of the arts has become an unbearable joke today," Thenmoli wrote in her email.

She said the play had been submitted for licensing a month ago and that the delay, approval and then cancellation of the license had cost the theater company time and money.

"We would have made the necessary amendments if MDA had informed us earlier," she wrote.

Elangovan, the playwright, is known for works that confront and question accepted societal norms. Another of his plays, Talaq, about rape within an Indian Muslim marriage, was banned by Singapore in 2000.

"Smegma explores this plastic society's hidden hierarchies by surfacing the experiences of its outsiders," reads a synopsis of the play. "Would you rape for the sake of your country? Would you kill children for your faith? Are you a transsexual waiting for God at the (subway) station? Would you throw pork into a prayer session? ... When the comfort zone is shattered, ugliness rears its head like cheesy Smegma."

National television station Channel NewsAsia reported that this was apparently the first time MDA had issued and then withdrawn a license for a play. It said the MDA's Arts Consultative Panel was concerned that the play could "create unhappiness and disaffection among the Muslim community."

The media body issues licenses for plays, musicals, dances, poetry recitals, music and variety shows, arts exhibitions and pop concerts.

Singapore has in recent years relaxed censorship regulations for films and plays in an effort to loosen up and market itself as a media and arts center. But controls remain tight.

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