There is nothing those who spend far too much time thinking and tweeting about politics like more than a chance to look like they’re engaging in a national cultural event (one everyone else might also be talking about). The word “hinterland” is flashing like a neon sign in our hindbrains. A chance to look normal – this is all we ask.
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In the final article in her guest editor series, Emma Burnell examines the relationship between theatre and real-life politics, speaking to industry figures such as James Graham, and a number of other critics and playwrights.
Emma Burnell is a Journalist, Political Consultant and Playwright. Her first play, No Cure for Love can be seen here.
“A playwright has to have a really good story. The politics should fit around it… I don’t want ever to feel like I am being hammered around the head with a message.”
These are the words of culture politics journalist Nicole Lambert and they have stuck with me as I have thought about this series of blogs exploring the ways in which politics and the performing arts interact – be that through comedy, a particular playwright or in its effect on an audience. There is so much scope for persuasion and even activation through theatre - but where does that leave the people who are seeing themselves depicted on stage?
Read MoreFor the past 20 years, I have worked in and around Westminster — primarily in communications for think tanks and latterly also as a political consultant and journalist.
I've written comment and analysis pieces for UK national newspapers including The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, and The Telegraph and was the contributing editor of an online political-news outlet, LabourList, for five years.
While I was brought up to be politically minded, this wasn't what I always wanted to do. As a child and a teen, I was desperate to be an actress.
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When Sex and the City first launched it was a breath of fresh air for single women in their early 20s, like me. I was just a few years behind Carrie and the gang – and related hard to their disastrous love lives, their bottom of the rung career mishaps and their tiny, grotty apartments.
My friends and I would often ask each other, “Which one are you?” We’d take quizzes in magazines to find out how much of a Charlotte or Samantha we were – we’d even lie about how much sex we’d had, or were having, so we could be more “Samantha”. We all wanted Cynthia Nixon’s brains, Kristin Davis’s poise, Kim Cattrall’s attitude and Sarah Jessica Parker’s heart.
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The government has released a five step plan for theatres to reopen, which should be good news. Sadly, it isn’t worth the vellum it’s written on. “It’s not helpful in any way,” says Jez Bond, artistic director and joint CEO of the Park Theatre. “It’s a pointless exercise.” The problem is that steps three to five of the plan – the steps that will put actual bums on actual seats – have no dates attached to them. As Anthony Fagan, operations manager of the Lion and Unicorn theatre in Kentish Town puts it: “Without having any further information, all our plans are hypothetical.” Tom Littler, artistic director of the Jermyn Street Theatre goes further: “There’s no point rehearsing [a play] if we can’t put it on.”
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The show must not go on. That was the message from the government to theatres everywhere. Or was it? Initially, no one was really sure. At first, it seemed to be a case of “It would be quite nice if the show didn’t go on”, but without compulsion, there was no support from insurance and no real understanding of what the impact was going to be on an industry almost entirely run by freelancers.
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When I was invited to attend a week-long festival of Ukrainian and Polish theatre in Poznan, I was slightly nervous. I don’t speak either language and so reviewing would be a tough gig. But on the other hand, how often do you get an opportunity to travel and challenge yourself in this way?
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meet Agata Siwiak in the glamorous downstairs bar and cabaret space at Teatr Polski in Poznan. It is the second day of the festival for which she is the artistic director, The ‘Close Strangers’ festival – which is putting on plays every night for a week either about the Ukrainian experience in Poland or by Ukrainian artists – in their own language and translated into Polish through subtitles.
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I was recently lucky enough to attend an open rehearsal for Say It Again, SorryCompany’s new production. It’s a sort of meta take on Wilde called The Importance of Being…Earnest?, where the audience not only get to see the behind the scenes drama – every bit as hilarious and farcical as the play itself – but also, through a range of devices, take part.
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To her shame, Emma Burnell didn’t know very much about the events of the Maidan revolution in 2014.That changed this week as she took part in an immersive theatre experience that had her waking several times in the night thinking of the lessons we should have learned and didn’t.
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Amber Rudd has described Buffy Summers as her feminist hero. Quite right too. While it’s hard to agree with Rudd that she’s an “early feminist” (Mary Wollstonecraft might have something to say about that) she’s definitely a fantastic role model for anyone who wants to look up not just to a hero but to a champion.
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Owen Kingston looks like a pirate king. Even in a small coffee shop dashing between engagements, he looks larger than life and like he should be brandishing a cutlass (very unfair, given he is incredibly sweet natured).
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Tens of thousands of people hanging on your every word and singing your name to the heavens. Who wouldn’t want to experience that? More pertinently, who—having experienced it once—wouldn’t want to recreate it?
It is very easy to see how, after the high of Corbyn’s post-election appearance at Glastonbury, the temptation to go big on Labour Live was as difficult to resist as it has proved impossible to deliver. According to reports, ticket sales are rather low and my younger, cooler friends tell me the line up isn’t up to much. Even I can see that there’s no Stormzy there—an oversight apparently caused by him already being booked to do something else. Which begs the question why that wasn’t checked before the date was set.
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Strictly Ballroom the musical was everything I hoped it would be and worried it wouldn’t deliver. Bringing this classic that I’ve loved for 26 years to the West End stage is an audacious move, but it works. That’s the key. It would work for someone who’s never seen the film, and it works for those of us whose videos wore out at that moment Scott moved his hips just so….
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In the bleak mid-80s, life was tough for young people in general, and in particular for those of a more sensitive disposition. Sensitivity wasn't cool. Cool was brash, buccaneering, blokey.
So when The Smiths came along, they spoke to a generation of (mostly white) dispossessed young people of a sensitive and mostly left wing bent. Their anthems to loneliness, quirkiness and being different struck a chord in many in a such a profound way that it is still ringing in their ears decades later. Their music was wonderfully refreshing (and Johnny Marr remains an untroubling hero) but it was the lyrics of Stephen Patrick Morrissey that made a lot of lonely vulnerable people going through a difficult time feel less alone.
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