Why this Story, Why Now?

The theatre industry is changing, partly a result of Arts Council funding cuts (blame the gov’t) but also there seems to be a shift on the small/ middle scale circuit where we want to sit this piece of work. There is an increasing emphasis on identity politics, on a very personal and hence very contemporary style of work and we wondered to begin with where our piece might sit. But, for all we felt a wee bit out on a limb with it to begin with, the more we spoke to people about the project, the more they seem to have understood why it’s not just interesting - it’s very relevant.  As the process of developing this piece from a series of threads, of names, dates, places and first hand testimonies of individual women, just what this piece is actually about becomes clearer.

As we read histories of the German revolution, and the chaos of the post WW1 Germany, the blaming of Jews for the defeat (in some quarters) the rise of National Socialism and what was to follow in the 30’s looms up on the horizon. Those who don’t learn their history are condemned to repeat it. We are in a moment when something now called the ‘alt right’ peddle racist hate, when there is a well-orchestrated assault on the independence and veracity of the news we are fed. When powerful forces seek to undermine and poison our democratic values in the name of an essentially racist agenda. The lessons of history have not been learned well enough.

One reads of the women abused by Harvey Weinstein, about the culture of abuse and control that the powerful exert when allowed to get away with it. That last sentence may be the digression of all time, but the point is, and it’s increasingly clear and this moment brings it sharply home - the suppression of women’s voices has not been by accident.

Professor Ingrid remarked to me once, it’s as if male historians simply don’t see the women. Where they do they relegate their importance to a footnote. They were there but that’s it, you know, making the tea, somebody’s wife, girlfriend, sister, oh yeah, her, nice girl, no-one knew who she was. That sort of thing. But look at the world we live in. Anything and everything that champions and amplifies women’s voice and role historically and politically is not just important – it’s vital!

So for all our piece is the dramatization of historical material, the key to it is its relevance to, it’s relation to this, our own time and the issues facing us today. Good, glad we’ve got that cleared up.

Now just the business of writing a play…

By Mick Martin