Theatre and Politics: A Playwright's Agenda
Othniel Smith reports from the event organised by the Guild's Welsh Branch at Sherman Cymru
On 20th September, the Welsh Branch of the Writers’ Guild hosted a discussion on the subject of politics in theatre, at the Sherman Cymru in Cardiff.
The Sherman was, at the time, staging Deep Cut, a verbatim play focusing on the death of a female soldier from North Wales at Surrey’s Deepcut Army Barracks in 1995. This production had returned to its home theatre, following a highly successful and critically acclaimed run on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Chairing the discussion was Gary Owen (whose plays include Welsh Assembly satire An Enemy For The People and the apocalyptic drama The Drowned World). The panel comprised David Edgar (Guild President, and one of the world’s foremost political playwrights), popular Welsh actress and dramatist Sharon Morgan, and Philip Ralph, author of Deep Cut.
David Edgar, Gary Owen, Philip Ralph and Sharon Morgan. (Photo:Paul Rees)
The first question was one of definition – what is political theatre?
David Edgar suggested that aside from the obvious (blatant agit-prop, or plays directly portraying politicians at work, such as Alistair Beaton’s Feelgood or David Hare’s Gethsemane), political plays were those containing some kind of argument about public life. He acknowledged, however, the perspective of feminist writers who argued that the personal and domestic was political, a point echoed by Sharon Morgan, who felt that her work involved making heard those voices which would otherwise go unheard.
Phil Ralph pointed out that his early writing (such as his play, Hitting Funny) bemoaned the death of 'ideology', which appeared to be viewed as a dirty word; Sharon Morgan argued that the same was true of 'feminism'. David Edgar suggested that ideology returned as a subject for drama following the events of September 11th 2001, which reminded us that “politics kills”.
Much of the discussion that followed centred on the vogue for verbatim drama, with the concern expressed that there was the potential for the playwright, whilst using 'real' voices, to abdicate the responsibility for expressing a viewpoint.
David Edgar expressed a preference for faction - fictional but fact-based dramas situated adjacent to real events - although he acknowledged the impact of verbatim work. Sharon Morgan argued that the act of structuring a verbatim play necessarily involves creating a thesis.
Phil Ralph expressed little fondness for the genre, but argued that since story dictates form, he had no choice, following a long and intensive research process, other than to make Deep Cut a verbatim drama.
His argument was that verbatim theatre filled a vacuum left by the death of serious, responsible journalism – a point later picked up by David Edgar, who argued that plays such as David Hare’s The Permanent Way, about the impact of railway privatisation on safety standards (Hare preferring to use the term “documentary theatre”) did the kind of work which, during the 1970s, would have been done by The Sunday Times, and that the Tricycle Theatre’s verbatim recreations of public enquiries (e.g. The Colour of Justice - about the Stephen Lawrence case - and Bloody Sunday), were effective because the proceedings themselves were not televised. Phil Ralph pointed out the dramatic effectiveness of replicating the coolness of the judicial process in the theatrical context.
One question from the floor addressed the contradiction between theatre being characterised as a forum for debate, and the absence of non-liberal-left voices amongst the dramatist community, the sense of injustice which is the motor for political writing not necessarily being the sole prerogative of the Left. We were reminded of the National Theatre’s Nicholas Hytner’s assertion that he would welcome a mischievous right-wing play. It was suggested that the theatre is one of the few public arenas where liberal-left views are dominant.
David Edgar argued that the bulk of left-wing theatre is critical of elements of the Left; that experiencing a university education is likely to incline one both towards liberalism and theatre-going; and that other, less inherently dialogic art-forms (such as music) are more effective at, for example, triumphantly expressing nationalistic sentiments - although, from a Welsh perspective, Sharon Morgan disputed the idea that nationalism is necessarily right-wing.
Edgar also cited oft-produced writers with unfashionable political viewpoints, such as Tom Stoppard, and Richard Bean.
Other speakers from the floor addressed the situation in Wales, and the perception that since the establishment of the Welsh Assembly Government, there have been fewer plays produced which focus on questions of identity and disenfranchisement from a Welsh point of view. Another expressed frustration that playwrights were failing to deal, in ideological terms, with the challenges of an increasingly divided world.
The focus of discussion then returned to Deep Cut, and its popularity. Phil Ralph suggested that it served a need in terms of filling the ideological void and combating audience cynicism, by telling a profoundly political story via the experience of one family; as well as by succeeding where more supposedly objective journalistic media had failed. However, he felt that the weight of responsibility involved in creating a verbatim drama was considerable.
David Edgar suggested that the popularity of the form reflected the remorseless push towards narrative in theatre over the past thirty years due to the dominance of film and television drama (producers of which, ironically, are less scrupulous when it comes to accurately recreating true stories). He argued that the verbatim aesthetic can be creatively subverted by politically-oriented dramatists (citing Robin Soans and Simon Stephens) and that writers can still produce potent drama by calling into question the reliability of the narrator.
In his concluding remarks, David Edgar hailed the Welsh committee of the Guild for successfully organising such an important and well-attended debate.
back to top