On theatre, politics, and theatre about politics
I’ve been trying to think of all the political theatre I’ve seen. Maybe I should re-phrase that. I’ve been trying to think of all the theatre about politics I’ve seen. So far I’ve got 2nd May 1997, which was particularly memorable for Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s incredible nipples; Posh, which stood out for its a capella rendition of Wiley’s Wearing My Rolex; and Hitch by Kieran Hurley, which I saw just a couple of days ago and which will stick in my mind because I have since added Glaswegian to my list of favourite sexy accents.
I haven’t seen anything by Belarus Free Theatre. In fact, until I heard that their King Lear featured cocks aplenty, I didn’t really want to. A while ago there was a whole load of bleating about how “endangered” they were, with Gandalf running some kind of charity night and everyone in theatre suddenly googling Belarus because we’d all just thought it was some Polish town or something till then. No-one said anything about whether or not their work was any good.
I went to see Hitch on Friday because at least three people had told me to JUST FUCKING SEE IT in the same way I’ve been telling people to JUST FUCKING SEE Three Kingdoms all week. I never would have bought a ticket if it wasn’t for these people because a one-man show about hitch-hiking to a protest sounds like the very worst kind of pious student do-gooding. In the end, it was good. It wasn’t too preachy, it built up nicely with music and film and stuff, and, like I said earlier, Kieran Hurley has a sexy voice. It was by no means a perfect show though.
I consider myself somewhere around 60-70% in the politically-aware spectrum. I prefer watching the news to Jeremy Kyle. I don’t like the Tories, or even the LibDems much anymore, and I want Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch to suffer the very worst kind of humiliating dethronement once the Leveson Inquiry is done. I wish the government would invest more in the public sector, and acknowledge the intrinsic value of an arts and humanities education by subsidising people like me. But I also know that if I was really rich I’d try to pay as little tax as possible.
When I go to the theatre I don’t want to see heavy shit about genocide and torture. I don’t really want to see stuff that paints protest as this idealistic wonderland where we can all embrace generosity and humanity and we can overthrow the bad guys with rainbows and bunny rabbits and the boundless fraternal love we have for all our new friends. I mainly just want jokes and cocks. Sorry.
