Does UK Theatre Need To Get Angrier
Discussion of what UK theatre is refusing to articulate, with particular reference to the genocide in Gaza...discussion of successful angry performances, and what spaces they tend to occupy
There was some discussion about lack of opportunities for young people to get angry and articulate their voice. Successful angry pieces were mentioned, like Lucy Kirkwood's Maryland, a howl of rage against the murder of Sarah Everard, and Emma Rice's Bluebeard, on the same subject. A couple of artists were developing a piece filled with anger and hope about the ban on women's football in England in 1921; Sweet FA, a successful play about the ban on women's football in Scotland, staged at Hearts FC ground in Edinburgh in 2021 was mentioned as a useful reference.
Miriam Nabarro talked about seducing the audience in at first and letting the anger build. She mentioned the recent Belarus Free Theatre production, a furious piece about the censoring and restriction of a leading Belarussian basketball player, with the seduction coming from her athletic skill. Capoeria dance was also mentioned as fighting disguised by dance. The tradition of protest song and the successful activism of the music community on the issue of the Gaza genocide as opposed to the muted response from most UK theatres.The contrast in the Irish response was noted, in particular the work of Kneecap which has had a huge influence. In parts of Belfast there are more Palestinian flags than Irish ones. Teddies representing all the children killed in Gaza. The people of Ireland, living with their own PTSD, empathic to the Palestinian experience because they have lived it.
Active censorship is occuring (Manchester Royal Exchange, ACE announcment on politicised statements last year). It may be that we are sleepwalking into a time when political protest may need to be encoded as in the former Eastern Bloc...Might we all need to have to start writing like Ionesco again...
Some discussion of cool restrained anger being more effective than more obvious forms of anger. Ben as an Anger Management expert mentioned that anger can be an overbearing defence mechanism so as not to expose hurt, shame and fear.
The age-old question of who will receive the story and the issue of preaching to the converted. Military choir singing the song from Les Miserables in the White House as a wonderful and powerful act of preaching to the unconverted.
Hope lies in the new generation with politically engaged people like Riddley. Perhaps live theatre expressions of political anger give people the fear because it is not coded in song or removed by a screen. Bethlehem Calling which Ben co-directed for Celtic Connections at the Tramway, brought the Trojan Horse of direct verbatim testimony from West Bank schoolgirls during the Second Intifada and again in 2024, within the context of a music festival where Palestinian pipers played with a Scottish supergroup. The fact that five out of the seven pipers were refused visas but joined by a livestream lead to an intense act of solidarity between Glasgow and Beit Jala and a standing ovation fuelled by anger and compassion.
Cutting The Tightrope, which was presented at the Arcola with anonymous authors, a powerful example of angry political theatre, which was presented either side of the ACE announcement, firstly with support and then without. The Edinburgh International Festival has programmed it, holding space for an incredible act of theatre. One of the writers was present in the session and was able to articulate the process of making the work as a response to censorship within the arts. She talked of a writing exercise which was to write a deliberately bad soap opera style angry rant, to get it out, then refine it after into a more nuanced, show don't tell piece of writing.
Discussion of trigger warnings, that we can't anticipate the audience's lived trauma experience, but on the other hand how well do trigger warnings work. Issue of Ben wanting to 'shoot' an audience member in the head (an audience plant) in the context of his show for EIF 2022 Muster Station Leith about an impending climate catastrophe hitting Scotland with forced evacuations, which played with Covid-style announcements and temperature checks, which led to the removal of an 'audience member'. In the end she was given a lethal injection, not shot, in the context of Squid Game, Cop 26 and the war in Ukraine was this risk adverse. Caroline Donald mentioned that audience members were triggered by Muster Station Leith anyway, even with this toning down.
The writer from Cutting the Tightrope talked of the pain of being the only person of colour in the audience for Slave Play, not an outcome the author presumably intended.
A balance needing to be struck between anger, taking action to articulate that anger, and the sensitivity to the lived experience of audiences and theatre makers. Even a flippant comment can be wounding.