Can we make more Radical Work with Old People?
Deciding to come back to Devoted and Disgruntled as an old person (it’s impossible not to accept that’s what you are at 77) I mainly wanted to listen to what new generations of theatre workers were feeling passionate about. Limited to the times I could be present by my role as carer I had thought I would mainly observe and take note. I was probably as surprised as anyone to find myself standing up and making a passionate final call for a session on Monday’s Day of Action. The subsequent applause and the boundless generosity of all those who came to the session touched me more than I can say.
Our conversation, which ranged from what we definitely didn’t want, to who was/is doing great work to considering practical interventions we might all make was heartening and enriching - a big thank you to Caitlin Gleeson for brilliant notetaking.
What we spoke about:
Imposing a moratorium on tea dances, reminiscence, sing-alongs to wartime music and instead hold events that celebrate life in more radical and relevant ways through things like men’s discos, Posh Club, Duckie, vaudeville, comedy nights (story of two people falling in love at one of these)
Considering Care as a Radical Act - find out what we can learn from queer theory, feminist approaches and employ them
Emboldening people to engage with discomfort and dissonance - and be prepared to do it ourselves finding possibilities to make work that’s about radical issues, politics, argumentative rather than ‘nice’ and ‘safe’ - and smashing expectations of the old
Determining to see old people simply as people but also as radical subjects in themselves – Hackney Showroom play with 80-year-old which is political and angry
Challenging our assumptions and biases - think about barriers to access in different ways, acknowledge old people as individuals with different abilities and interests; stop approaching everything through the lens of illness or physical impacts of old age
Creating spaces to talk about difficult things, grief, death, Fevered Sleep, Death Cafes, or for people to be loud about identity – not isolating older members of LGBTQI communities or other minorities,
Remembering/or learning more about different approaches to ageing/old age in different cultures and not being mono-cultural
Creating opportunities for small acts – pairing older people with younger people to make a piece of work together – which might mean resisting funding challenges
Refusing to ignore CLASS issues in terms of access to this work in the past or now
Exploring ways to make dance that are not so exclusive or oversubscribed – love/hate relationships with the places and ways Pina Bausch’s work with elders is often shared – look at Nederlands Dans Theatre
Questioning whether intergenerational work is radical in itself or whether we can set out to make it more radical, including encouraging work where older and younger generations learn from each other – think about how we might want to pass the mic
Choosing co-creation – and mean it – look out for the traps unequal power structures bring. Find ways to make the learning mutual.
Taking the work to old people if they can’t get out – dancing, performing in people’s living rooms
Making things visible, shifting our awareness, change the culture – thinking of counter-culture as a gateway, learning from old people about their own radicalism and activism and the way things changed in the past – from strikes to protests.
Seeking out connections even across difference of attitudes that - listen, be patient, but also brave discomfort when it feels right
Engaging with what we can learn from those radical artists still making work in their old age - from Liz Lerman to Lois Weaver - and champion and share things we might not know about e.g. Royal Exchange Company of Elders, Alan Lyddiard
Being proactive about shifting the ARCHIVES – by examining whose histories are shared, what kinds of histories are welcomed, what histories that are excluded because they are problematic and work to change this.