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Review: Theatre Uncut

From the moment I stepped into ‘The Vault’ – the studio theatre of the Southwark Playhouse where Theatre Uncut‘s flagship performances were taking place- I knew that the production had no desire to put the audience at ease. The traditional divide between performers and audience was warped by the disintegration of the seating nearest to the stage into small clusters around tables lit by small candles which cast shadows on the cavernous arches over which the trains rattle into and out of London Bridge Station. The sound of these trains was for me a key part of the performance, a clear and constant reminder that the issues raised by the eight short plays written and performed by volunteers were greater than the plays themselves and as integral a part of contemporary society as the walls preventing the trains from landing on our heads.

Theatre Uncut is a reaction against the coalition\’s budget cuts urging people to not accept whatever situation they find themselves in and to not defer to authority instinctively. There is an outside authority controlling the events of each play such as the unseen medical professionals in Laura Lomas\’ Open Heart Surgery who prevent Lisa from even touching her fiance as he lies in a medically induced coma as a result of the titular operation. In others, these sinister presences are given a voice whether they use it for temptation as in Housekeeping by Lucy Kirkwood, where an accountant striving to balance the books tells a woman to sell her grandmother, or to simply command acceptance. Such unquestioning allegiance is expected from the ‘bottled water salesperson\’ in Dennis Kelly\’s Things That Make No Sense when he is questioned by two smiling interrogators who ignore his responses and write his confession to a murder he didn\’t commit before asking him to sign it with his only consolation being that others are far worse off and everyone must do their best to wipe the record clean.

The audience\’s own complicity with unfeeling and impersonal acts is ensured in perhaps the most inventive of the plays – Fragile by David Greig. This dialogue is between Jack and his support worker Caroline who is played collectively by the audience. The audience voice the extent and reasons for the cuts and so are forced to internalise their reality and consider their own attitudes towards disability benefit and the place given to those who need it in society. Should society aid those in need? The middle class couple of Jack Thorne\’s Whiff Whaff think not and refuse to accept help with their lame cat, their son, whose legs were amputated, or their own Alzheimers. The extreme level of self-sufficiency demanded by them is an excellent use of exaggeration and humour to emphasise how such a policy can go too far and to warn that if it is applied without perspective – the result is both savage and ridiculous.

That society cannot be anything other than dehumanising and monstrous if it acts without empathy and perspective is the overwhelming message of Hi Vis by Clara Brennan, a moving monologue by a mother forced to abandon her disabled daughter at a care home and dress as a clown in order to gain access to her. She hopes the doctors won\’t forget that her daughter is human too, that she could explain to ‘the coalition boys\’ how neuroscience has explained that we learn behaviour by mirroring others, and that without bees we too would become extinct.

However, with such a focus on politics and the brief length of each play there is a danger that the hostility and bitter disappointments of the characters presented could alienate the audience.  At times I felt the stance presented was so uncompromisingly negative and condemnatory that it was difficult to engage with the characters. Of course we should question our roles in society as well as that of government and theatre but is not one of the joys of theatre that messages can be delivered subtly for the audience to observe and ponder. One offering was particularly blunt, namely The Fat Man by Anders Lustgarten, and seemed more suitable for Speakers\’ Corner than as a piece of drama. Capitalism was explored through a comparison with an affable but swindling Fat Man but the relentless condemnation of the system

without any consideration of the other point of view made the monologue rather flat overall.

Theatre Uncut gave the ‘political voice of theatre\’ and there has been widespread participation throughout the UK and performances staged even as far away as Chicago. Many of these were arranged by students whose recent call to activism was celebrated in Mark Ravenhill\’s A Bigger Banner, students who will be the leaders of the future. However, despite its constant presence it was not the political message which touched me so much as the repeated call for active involvement in life in any capacity and an empathetic respect for others fostered by the theatre. All lives are valuable and each individual has a right to challenge the status quo through words and discussion, a right and a duty to challenge the complacency of a society and realise that it is never too late. Leaving the rattle of the trains behind and emerging into the bustle of London, I am left wondering for how much I would have sold my grandmother.

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