Theatre
Staging a revolution
At a round table discussion at the Traverse theatre, eight different companies discuss with theatre editor Steve Cramer why their work is political, and why the theatre needs such work today. Photographs: Jeremy Stockton
Steve Cramer Is the purpose of verbatim work to get rid of the whole idea of mediation. so that you're telling something directly in people's own words? Simon Levy (director. ;' r .~ 1 . ,' ;) lhat's the thing With [)onald Humsfeld he literally Will deny something that is in the public record w that's why there are people outraged and in the streets saying “you're a fucking liar'.
Iben Hendel Philipsen (director. :3 .‘n ' '/ .~ J) But also because there's a media world which does not respond and they do not take on their responsibility to actually say "what did you Just iust s;iy'?' Nobody does that.
Kim Kefgen idirector, t ,i' a x " 'v " t z 5-? :4" r f ' :) They report it as fact - they guote Bush. they guote Humsfeld. and then there's no back~ checking.
Brian Dykstra (director. tide is turning
.tf )But the their popularity is so low. now it's become cool to be the news guy who says ‘that's not what they said six months ago' ~* if yOu're gomg to take the credit now. then you've got to take the blame for not enlightening your listeners. And then you've got someone like Fox News in the USA who just give out mismformation which helps the politICIan continue to lie.
Josh Broadstone idirector .. ' ‘--l Everyone knows that fox News is shit but does everyone realise why is it still running?
SL Because corporations are willing to support it With their advertising dollars, We area very uneducated viewership. we have people who watch Fox News and it's the news!
KK There are uneducated people who believe in Fox News — but in some levels its economic. I'm from a small town in Ohio and the people I know who don't take the time to really research. they don't dig to get the real stay. because they're working two iobs. because they're trying to feed their family.
JB We wanted to find out for ourselves basically. The only way you are actually gOing to find Out about yOur neighbour. what's gomg on in this community or that community is if you go to the community yourself and you start asking questions and you create a dialogue Within that and you encourage people to create a dialogue amongst
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each other as well.
IHP For me it's very important to state that whatever I'm told if I tell it to someone else I'm mediating it. but you have to take the responSIbility for being the mediator and that what's people are not dOing today in the media 7- acknowledging the responSibility you have when you try to tell someone else a story
SC Can political theatre change things?
Everyone Yes. absolutely!
KK In our play we've made a real effort to have as diverse an audience as possible. we've taken real care not to preach. Our piece is about one woman's experience. So the audience is forced to confront somebody who could be their daughter or their Sister or their friend or their mother and hear that this IS what this person's IiVing through. It's very hard to say the war is good after this; in that way it means that people have to ask themselves.
80 But if someone comes in and sees your show and is really pro-war. they might say oh what a horrible conseQuence that this has to happen to this poor woman. but I don't believe they‘re gOing to change instantly. change happens so incrementally. SL We ran ;' ' h.- ; for five months and we had a post-show discussmn after every Single show and my experience from that is that our
job as artists is to keep the audience awake with the truth either to keep people awake or to wake them up A', long as we do that our work 1‘, .«aluable
Van Badham (director and performer, -' l ' ~ ; When I was ten. a working class kid at a state school. I went to see a play by Robin Archer called '.
r it was the hmght of the Cold War. it the first time I'd ever been told the /\lll‘:fl(,ltll.‘, weren't necessarily the good guys and l .‘Jt'tlkftd out of that play as a child with a completely different world View. Not only did it motivate me to learn more about the world that I lived in. but it gave the a language to articulate what the problems were and turned me into an achvrst. turned me into a left winger. Take no action and there'll be no results Richard Franklin (directOr. .- ' :' x .' I We get through to people in a way that for instance reading a newspaper article won't necessarily get thr0ugh because its intellectual and ours is emotional so there's a different language.
IHP It depends what you mean — will it change anything? Will it change the world. Well maybe not instantly. but if it changes that one person it's a start. and it may Just evolve from there and if you get people talking than something will happen. and 1
people want to go to sleep. so our iob I‘.