Theatre

Staging ideas: politics of form and content

I would identify myself as a socialist as well as a theatre-maker. But someone viewing my work would not necessarily describe it as socialist theatre. Not because it’s apolitical, but because I wouldn’t say the theatre that I make is explicitly socialist (in the way we perhaps might describe Ken Loach as a socialist film director). However, I believe that what makes drama political is not just the themes the text discusses — whether it involves political events, characters, or explicit political arguments — but the form the theatre takes itself. Radical theatre has never just been radical...

Putting working-class voices centre stage

On 14 March, a short play I wrote about the 1974 Clay Cross rents dispute (where the Labour council, backed by a strong labour movement campaign, refused to implement a Tory act increasing council rents) will have a reading (i.e. a rehearsed, but not full, performance) as part of a new writing festival at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. The play is called The Rest of the Cod (trust me, the title makes sense in context...) The script is based around interviews, Hansard proceedings, film footage and other sources. I’ve been grappling with whether or not to describe it as verbatim...

Pussy Riot: performance and protest

Nadya Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, have been sentenced to two years in jail for “hooliganism” for performing their “Punk Prayer” at Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Russia’s main Christian Orthodox place of worship. As part of their trial on 8 August, the women read testimonies out in court. When each speech was met with applause, the Judge (Marina Syrova) responded: “We are not in a theatre.” It was an apt response, therefore, for London’s Royal Court Theatre to stage readings of the testimonies, translated by Sasha...

The Pussy Riot Testimonials

Nadya Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, three members of Russian punk band ‘Pussy Riot’, have been sentenced to a two year jail term for ‘hooliganism’ as a result of a performance of their ‘Punk Prayer’ in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Russia’s main Christian Orthodox place of worship. As part of their trail, on 8 August, the women read testimonials in Khamovnichesky court. When each speech was met with applause, the Judge (Marina Syrova) responded with ‘we are not in a theatre.’ It was an apt and responsible call, therefore, for London’s Royal Court Theatre to stage...

Can drama be feminist?

In the study of arts-based subjects, the tendency might be to apply theories (“isms”) to pieces of art as a kind of critique, as a way of approaching a text, etc, from a certain perspective, in order to write a convincing essay. For example, I remember being asked to write an essay by choosing a play, and choosing two critical theories to critique it with. Although I think it is more insightful to approach a playtext with the broadness of a political or social context, trying to interpret anything I could find in Aphra Behn’s The Rover as “socialist feminist” is not very helpful. First, “isms”...

The "Perdition" affair

In early 1987 there was a public controversy about "Perdition", a play by Jim Allen, a radical writer with a Trotskyist background, which was scheduled to be directed by Ken Loach at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Critics claimed that the play, representing Zionists as collaborating with the Nazis in the massacre of Jews in Hungary, was anti-Jewish, and designed primarily to "delegitimise" Israel; defenders argued that it was being banned for highlighting awkward truths. The Royal Court cancelled the production at a late stage. Later, the play, in an amended version, was published, and in...

The "Perdition" affair

When the Royal Court Theatre decided at the last minute not to go ahead with its scheduled production of Jim Allen's play about the massacre of the Jews of Hungary in 1944, 'Perdition', a flood of discussion, polemic and recrimination was unleashed in the press. It had already been the subject of protests by various prominent Jews and of publicity in the press. The "Perdition" Affair There are at least two issues involved in the 'Perdition' affair: artistic freedom and its limits; and whether or not 'Perdition' is anti-Jewish. Allen and the director, Ken Loach, immediately raised an outcry...

Tony Greenstein's first polemic on "Perdition"

Jim Allen is accused of being "vainglorious, boastful" and the campaign against the banning of Perdition is described as being "smart" and "disingenuous" ("The Perdition Affair" by John O'Mahony, WL6). The "Perdition" Affair Far be it from me to accuse John O'Mahony of these sins, despite setting himself up as some form of expert on the subject under discussion. But where O'Mahony is wrong is when he equates freedom of speech for anti-Zionists and socialists with the right of those who disagree with Perdition to campaign for its banning. It's like saying that a film on police violence against...

Sean Matgamna takes a second look at "Perdition"

Tony Greenstein praises and justifies 'Perdition' by pointing to some of those who are against it. That's altogether too crude. Yet it is the normal standard of judgement used by the two-camps left in world politics. The "Perdition" Affair Here, as on everything else, the serious Marxist left needs an independent judgement. On a second reading, I think I was too soft on 'Perdition', much too soft. The factual accuracy of Allen's account of Hungary has been contested on a number of important points. Here I will discuss what Allen makes of what he says are the facts. A 'Hungarian Zionist leader'...

Tony Greenstein's second polemic on "Perdition"

I would be the last person to complain that the reply to my letter in Workers' Liberty 7 was more than four times the length of the original. The "Perdition" Affair However, it might have been helpful, to say nothing of honest, if John O'Mahony had explained that the chunks of Perdition quoted were early drafts that were, as with most plays, articles, etc, discarded, amended, deleted and added to. For example, the phrase 'Zionist knife in the Nazi fist' does not appear in the play, having been deleted at an early stage. Whatever its dramatic effect, politically it would not have been justified...

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