WHAT I want
to do here, for myself at least, is to move past mourning the theatre we
can't have anymore and trying to come up with a model for what kind of
Scottish Theatre we CAN have under the conditions with which we are going to
find ourselves confronted and conditioned by for the foreseeable
future...before we get to the "unforeseeable new normal" that is
going to be our future.
I profoundly believe that we have the chance of
fashioning a sectoral and strategic plan for our own small country...But I as strongly
believe that if we leave responses simply to the individual initiative of
individuals and producers, we might miss out on our own collective
survival. As with the virus itself, it is only concerted collective
action that can protect some...perhaps most...individuals. But that this
collective effort needs to be led. And it is leadership I think, however
uncomfortably, we need to think about.
We know what the problems are. If and when public
spaces do re-open, it will have to be with social distancing on and off
stage. We are not going to be re-opening the Tron or the Lyceum or Dundee Rep
at full capacity for some time well beyond the immediate
"fire-fighting" that the Westminster and Edinburgh governments have
put in place for different kinds of employers and the self-empolyed who make up
most of the workforce of the media...printed, broadcast, theatrical. This
may last a year...it may last two till a workable universal vaccine is in
place.
(We hope!)
We will need a strategy that goes past
"fire-fighting." And sector by sector, as we partially lift the lockdown,
it is those who work WITHIN parts of our economy, from farming to tourism to
Eden Court...we need to inform how it's done...
This will mean, of course, the Scottish Government, among
others, making a selection...more or less painful choices about which
institutions to preserve and protect for the happy day, however long hence,
that they can fully re-open their doors.
We could, of course, leave it to the marketplace...SOME form
of selection is surely coming...but I fear if we don't get organised NOW,
Rupert Murdoch will end up owning whatever is left...
(Mr Potter buying up Bedford Falls after the Wall Street
Crash springs irresistably to mind...which makes us the Bailey Building and
Loan, if you follow the torturous movie reference)
Anyway...I think it is important that we establish a set of
agreed social and artistic "values" around which this selection can
be organised. Without those values, without leadership, without
agreement...then I'm not sure survival can be done...or at least not done
"progressively."
It could be that "progressive survival" is the
descriptive phrase for what I want to talk about for Theatre in Scotland. But that it is exactly the notion of “progressive
survival” that we need to coalesce around in the WHOLE economy…from housing to
health to manufacture to fishing to the “Bide a Wee “ B and B. And that those
who WORK in those sectors must inform the knowledge base for the recovery, as
collectively agreed values inform the rationale.
In the meantime, back in MY area of expertise, if "sold
out" means that the Lyceum has sold 125 tickets, or the Tron has sold 50...(and
the decison is made by local and national government that these
economics are bearable in the meduium terms for a limited number of spaces) we
also have to think about what that means for the sector as a whole.
Longer runs of hit shows? More performances? A core
ensemble of actors at maybe six or seven high profile venues? Employing
otherwise unavailable telly and movie stars? A change in the balance of
organisations directly in receipt of government support...and thus no
longer reliant on the increasingly bust looking "reactive" model
of Creative Scotland for strategic arts provision?
I think one way or the other, one way or the other, the
centre will probably hold...given a few mortgage holidays...and maybe a hike in
already uncomfortably high ticket prices.
BEYOND that, culturally, socially and and geographically...BEYOND
those spaces whose importance to the great and the good will probably ensure
some kind of survival...I think the NTS "Scenes for Survival", the
Scotsman's short filmed performances and Pitlochry Theatre's commissions of
monologues ALSO point a way forward that I think needs to be explored
STRATEGICALLY in the wake of the immediate impulse to stay alive.
This is where I think "vlog-casts" might come
in. Where I think we might get Sam Heughan or Karen Gillen to do fifteen
minute story reading slots for download on mobile phones and broadcast on BBC
Scotland, where "pop up theatres" might perform "survivors'
cabarets" in NON theatrical venues, where we look creatively at the spaces
and technologies that are available...rather than longing for the creative
spaces that are not.
In order to monetise and promote and pay for these
activities...these opportunities...we need to think beyond our own bunkers...is
all I'm saying. We need to look at pooled advertising revenue as well as
government funding...and to do BOTH of those things, I do not believe it
is possible NOT to act collectively.
Or indeed without the broadcasters...
It may well be that these conversations are already
happening in the hierarchies above and beyond my paygrade as a freelance
playwright with a drawer full of delivered and now un-performable scripts…. And
that some folk who read this you are among the ones already doing the talking.
But I have been inspired by being lucky enough to be involved in all three of
the initiatives undertaken by Pitlochry, The Scotsman and the NTS. I have
also been hugely moved by some of the personal stories that I've been
hearing on radio and TV and online. And all of these experiences have made me
at least START to think positively about what the hell comes next?
Also, I have to say, the way that Nicola Sturgeon's
admonition to treat the public like adults has found a resonance, and the way
that this line is now being parroted all over the UK, gives me hope that the
leadership the likes of you can offer is going to find supportive echoes in the
corridors of power. And her piece in the Herald on Sunday 26th April
is a general call to which this open letter is a response.
Our conversations in the theatre isn Scotland, as elsewhere,
need to be adult, wide, democratic and inclusive...and involve artists AND
audiences. To survive at all, let alone survive “progressively”, we are
going to HAVE to get our heads together.
Then just maybe we can make something better than a
Survival, and make something we're proud of...that puts in a good place for the
day after the day after tomorrow.
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