PORNOGRAPHY
a generation that recognises the contradictions and complexities. So. subsequently. I‘m nervous about phrases like “state of the nation play’ being applied to my work.‘
For all that. Stephens‘ focus in Pornography is relentlessly political. Veering from euphoria to devastation. the play is set in the three days in 2005 that lead up to the 7/7 bombings in London. It incorporates the experiences of seven people. taking in the highs of the Gleneagles G8 summit and the announcement of the London Olympics through to the bombings themselves.
‘When we found out about who the bombers were. a lot of people expressed shock that they were British. but I wasn‘t surprised at all.‘ he says. ‘One of the initial impulses of writing the play came from that spirit of incredulity.‘
He adds: ‘The media‘s impulse was to fundamentally demonise these boys. but also. by proxy. to demonise fundamentalists. then the whole Islamic religion. When you start reading about attacks on Sikhs and Hindus then you realise that things have gone pretty awry. What
struck me at the time was not a sense of disbelief
about these boys being British; there was something fundamentally British about the act itself. I mean. the whole architecture of what they did. driving down the MI. getting the train at Luton airport. the train from there to Kings Cross with their Fitness First backpacks — it was all so very British.’
What‘s very British. too. for Stephens. is the isolation and atomisation that leads to violence. For him. the bombings were part of a bigger pattern established by the extreme individualism created in people by. amongst other things modem technology. This allows us. be it through internet porn or mobile messaging to make abstracts of other people. divesting them of their status as flesh and blood creatures like ourselves.
‘These young men are a symptom of these phenomena not their cause. That isolation leads to increasing violence: it leads to further atomisation. Our need for the internet. our mobiles, our iPods. the Metro newspaper boom: they all point to this. Their act of teenage violence seems to me to be extremely British.‘
Yet. if Stephens is interested in highlighting a political issue. his literacy in theatre underpins it. His starting point for constructing the play was the speech of the world-weary Jacques in As You
22 THE LIST 17—31 Jul 2008
‘THE ATOMISATION OF OUR CULTURE IS EVERYWHERE'
Like 1!. about the seven ages of man. ‘Each
character. from the baby to the old man at the
end. who in this play is an old lady. has a parallel
in the piece. In this case. the soldier figure is in
fact a soldier of Islam. but I think so much about
life‘s journey is summed up in that speech.‘ This might give you a hint as to Stephens‘
technique. for. while he admires the work of such 70s ‘state of the nation‘ writers as Howard Brenton. he disagrees about the approach to character in their work. For Stephens. character ‘ is not a means of conveying a message. but
rather the lifeblood of drama itself.
'For me. character is so important. We understand ideas through the behaviour and actions of individuals. I hope people can
recognise themselves in the characters they’re
watching. Even in a play like Motortown where
you see a lot of violence. I think there’s hope in
it. and it’s a hope created by self-recognition. I ' don‘t think. in this respect. that my work is as
pessimistic as some people have made it out to be. That continued attempt of people to form relationships with characters and each other in this context is very hopeful. Although we do live in pornographic times. people still see the potential to need intimacy and seek it out.’ Pornography. though. is what the piece is about. If the sexual acts we can access so easily
on the internet seem to concentrate upon , removing intimacy from sex. there‘s something equally pornographic about removing context
from any act.
In this way perhaps the news coverage of events like 7/7. in creating heroes and villains :
without context. is equally pomographic. It’s the
kind of complexity that Stephens would no
doubt wish us to consider.
Pornography, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sun 3-Sun 24 Aug, various times. Previews Mon 28 Jul & Sat 2 Aug, £1 1 (£5).
WAR REQUIEM
New director of the Traverse Dominic Hill's own directorial debut is an unobtrusive choice. Kirstin lnnes meets Zinnie Harris, the playwright behind Fall
innie Harris is tucked into a booth at the
back of the Traverse bar, away from all
the pre-Festival madness, when we meet to talk about the similarly unobtrusive-sounding Fall. the third part of a trilogy of plays looking at ordinary individuals affected by the brutality of war. The first two parts. Solstice and Midwinter, were commissioned and performed by the RSC, but Scottish audiences shouldn’t find the continuity too difiicult.
‘I’m not sure that they’re all necessarily about the same war. or even set in the same country,’ says Harris. ‘They’re standalone plays — what links them is the idea that war has cycles like the seasons. from the tiny events that spark conflict. to the awful. horrendous loss of life. Fall is set after the war. at a war crimes tribunal. It’s about the thin line between justice and revenge — how does a country deal with the crimes of an old regime and allow the culture to move forward into an era of peace?”
There’s obvious thematic resonance there with recent current events. but Harris won’t allow Fall to be pinned down as a post-Iraq piece.
‘No. it’s definitely not directly about Iraq. What’s been happening there as I’ve been writing the trilogy (she began in 2003) has obviously fed in. though, and Fall was partly written in response to Saddam‘s execution. I wanted to explore how easy it is to look on from the West and condemn the choices that have been made; whether one really has a right to make those judgements if one hasn’t lived through it.’
Despite the huge scale of her subject matter. though, Fall is still about personal moments rather than the grand abstracts of diplomatic negotiation or military tactics.
‘Perhaps with this one I’m taking a more overt look at those decisions that are made higher up, but. you know. just because one of the characters is the prime minister doesn’t mean I’m not examining how he conducts all of his affairs. And Dominic’s doing a brilliant job with the direction. He’s very. very sensitive to the script and what it’s about — the tiny moments as much as the larger pieces of drama.”
Fall, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sun 3-Sun 24 Aug, various times. Previews
l Thu 24-Sat 26 Jul 8. Sat 2 Aug, £1 1 (£5).