Play confronts greed and social dislocation
IN a week already full of good surprises, a friend phoned to share her newly won theatre tickets with me.
She told me she would send a link to the information about the play at the Mill Theatre and I laughed saying I was happy to go along with her regardless of the play.
In the unlikely event any of my former professors are listening, let me hasten to clarify here I have not lost the schooling of how to argue what defines a good piece of drama, nor have I become so de-urbanised I am mindlessly grateful for any theatre that makes its way up here.
My friend and I would have found a way to enjoy whatever conversation presented itself on the stage without letting our aesthetics drop. Fortunately, we were rewarded with a pair of short plays that provided not only a good evening’s entertainment but also ideas for a long think.
Both plays were written by the performer, with the help of a variety of colleagues from Arches, "one of Europe’s leading cultural arts venues… both an arts receiving and production house" whose name is derived from the fact it is housed "within seven grade A-listed Victorian railway arches in Glasgow city centre". (www.thearches.co.uk)
The first play, Crunch, exploits the rhetoric of motivational speakers and televangelists to lead the audience to examine its ideas about money. Created in 2009 when we were struggling to make sense of the greed and short-sightedness that had brought banks, economies and communities to near collapse, Crunch begins with the premise that the largest belief system in the world now is the belief in money.
Interacting with the audience, Gary McNair gives a remarkably cogent brief history of economics, including a comical look at the limitations of barter. And then, in the best tradition of motivational rhetoric, he develops his own platform for a better system – one that would avoid the pitfalls of bartering and the boredom of an economy based on an impoverished sameness.
His ironic look at richism reminded me of a wry dialogue by Morecambe and Wise which satirised the dangerous nonsense of banking gone mad by using the language of the bankers.
The flyer describes Crunch as a "thought-provoking live experiment about the value of money". Because the course of the play depends on the reactions of the audience, it is experiential and I daresay McNair could collect and analyse the data and form some conclusions in the tradition of social scientists but I think Crunch falls well within the boundaries of theatre to be transformative, to create for us the opportunity, the encouragement for "ah-ha" moments.
A MEME, my daughter explained to me, is an idea planted somewhere in cyberspace where it is likely to be seen and picked up and carried along into a conversation. Crunch starts a conversation about how we think about money that, hopefully, will get picked up and carried along.
Like the foolish emperor of the folk tale who believed he was clothing himself regally when he was naked, some day someone who may never have been part of the audience of Crunch will take out his/her wallet and look at the money and think just how funny a thing it is to have had such sway over our lives.
After the play, I spoke to McNair. He describes himself as a theatre-maker whose interest in theatre grew out of a tradition of storytelling that was a part of his growing up.
Every play – regardless of its subject matter – has to have a truth and an urgency about it. Each performance is a conversation created. Thus, I don’t think he would mind my calling him a meme-maker.
The second play of the double bill from the Arches, Hitch, is as direct as Crunch is ironic. Crunch offered a humorous, intellectualised look at money and the importance it has come to play in our lives and thoughts.
By contrast, Hitch is a personal window into the larger issues of the role of protest in confronting greed and social dislocation.
Together, their different approaches provide a richer look at some of the most challenging issues we are facing today than either play could have done on its own.
As with Crunch, Hitch was written and performed by the author, Kieran Hurley, who also describes himself as a theatre-maker. He described Hitch as a road story or a coming-of-age story.
Combining video, music and direct narrative, the simple story of his trip to join the protests at L’Aquila, an earthquake-devastated town where the G8 met in 2009, becomes all the more compelling.
Although there is only one performer, the dialogues recalled of the fellow travellers bring them so much to life they all seem very much a part of the performance.
This double-bill special performance began its tour in Thurso at the Mill Theatre. When I asked why Thurso for the premiere, both McNair and Hurley were passionate about revitalising touring theatre in Scotland.
Upcoming plans include perhaps working with two members of the former Wildcat touring theatre company. In the meantime, Crunch and Hitch will tour Scotland this month, ending in Glasgow on October 13.