Theatre Uncut asks: do we all get more right-wing in hard times?
Do we all get more right-wing in hard times? This is the question we set our writers to create Theatre Uncut 2013. It's difficult isn't it? I want to say a confident: "No!" I'd like to say that when the human race is faced with challenges we open our hearts and look out for each other, but what I see happening in the world right now suggests the opposite. This question starts many a heated debate in the Theatre Uncut team.
Theatre Uncut was created by my co-artistic director Hannah in response to the cuts in public spending announced in October 2010. It began as an act of protest rather than an abstract artistic endeavour. We ask leading and emerging playwrights to respond to the current political climate through short plays. We then make these available for anyone to download and perform anywhere rights free.
The idea is to get people thinking, talking and taking action on what is going on the world. Over the past three years our plays have been performed by more than 3,000 people across 17 countries. We've had performances on public buses in Mexico, on a US Air Force base in Japan and during protests on the streets of Spain.
So far we have engaged more than 3,000 people in conversations about equality, human rights and the social effect of austerity. Any one of these conversations has the potential to turn to action. The pupils who are working on Theatre Uncut in their classroom may turn out to be the future leaders of their country.
Each year we respond to the current political landscape as honestly as we can. The first year was clear: an artistic response to the coalition's comprehensive spending review in 2011. Across the UK, 87 groups performed the plays in community centres, schools, universities, theatres, in their front rooms and on the streets.
The picture in 2012 was more complicated: the Arab Spring was underway, riots had spread across the UK, violent protest against austerity filled the streets of Greece, and Occupy camps were in full swing across the world.
The moral integrity of the media was in serious question, so we asked writers from Spain, Syria, Greece, the US, Iceland and Egypt to tell us what was happening in their countries. The 2012 plays were translated into many different languages and performed across the world.
The political landscape of 2013 is curious; public protest is less regular on the streets of the UK even though the effects of the cuts in public spending are painfully clear. Maybe people are tired, or scared, or maybe they agree with the welfare reforms that target the weakest in society, the 'Go Home' vans, the privatising of public services for personal profit and the threat to free healthcare for all in this country.
So on the historically radical 1 May we decided to ask the public what Theatre Uncut should be tackling this year. We were overwhelmed with suggestions, from the barbarity of the bedroom tax, the legacy of Thatcher, the demonisation of migrants. We digested all of these suggestions, discussed them with our writers, and distilled our subject into one question: "Do we all get more right-wing in hard times?"
We know that UKIP received a worryingly high result in the last local elections; we know the Golden Dawn party in Greece has its strongest following for years, but we wanted to make the question personal, to encourage you to ask whether you get more right-wing too. To answer it you need to define what "right-wing" means for you. We aren't here to answer these questions but to encourage you to ask them of yourself.
Theatre Uncut has no drum to bang; we encourage people to discover their own opinion, rather than to share ours. I don't hide the fact that I think that the welfare state is the best thing to have happened to the UK in the last century, that we should all fight for the NHS with every scrap of energy we have and that there is no need for anyone anywhere to earn more than £100,000 (or the equivalent) a year.
But not everyone we work with shares my beliefs. Our rehearsal rooms are full of questions and arguments, of research and learning. We may not agree – that's the joy – but we always return to the core ingredient needed to create a piece of theatre: empathy.
Emma Callander and Hannah Price will be directing Theatre Uncut 2013 at the Young Vic from 19-23 November – find out more here and follow Theatre Uncut on Twitter @TheatreUncut
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