Earlier this week, Ellie and I watched a series of very short plays called “Cutting the Tightrope: The Divorce of Politics from Art” at the marvellous Arcola Theatre in Hackney. We were almost feeling a bit ashamed that it had taken us so long to discover this gem on the London theatre scene, considering how easy it is to get to from central London. Dalston Junction is only two stops from the Victoria Line, for example, by London Overground (Windrush Line). Once you are at the station, it’s under a minute’s walk to the theatre.
Feature pic (c) Cutting The Tightrope Ltd; Pics 1 and 2 above (c) Ali Wright.
FIRST STAGING WAS IN MAY THIS YEAR
Cutting the Tightrope has first been staged at the same location in May this year, to raise awareness of the censorship and self-censorship in the performing arts and society in general, and in relation to the genocide in Palestine in particular. The performances started again after several months’ break Tuesday a week ago and the last performance (for now anyway) will take place this coming Saturday. A couple of short plays and performances have been added since May, and we end up with an overall length of around 2h15m, including the interval. Whoever wants to, can stay on for a 30-minute post-show talk or panel discussion. We had to rush home, as we had an early morning the next day.
STILL TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR CUTTING THE TIGHTROPE AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE
Tickets are currently still available. The £12 ‘restricted view tickets’ we had purchased had a perfectly fine view of the stage, albeit from the side, as far as we were concerned. Standard tickets are £26 to £31. Because the theatre wanted to fill all the seats close to the stage and some of those had been left empty, we were offered to sit in £31 premium seats. Which we did.
Pics #1 and #2 above (c) David Monteith-Hodge/Photographise.
CRESS BROWN DIRECTS CUTTING THE TIGHTROPE AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE
Work on Cutting the Tightrope started with Cress (Cressida) Brown, who is also directing, commissioning 11 playwrights to respond to the Arts Council England (ACE)’s warning against being political. As some of you may know, Brown also directed another series of explosive short plays, almost ten years ago, called Walking the Tightrope. With this year’s show, she is being assisted by co-directors Kirsty Housley and Zainab Hasan.
THE ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND UPDATED THEIR GUIDELINES
In an excellent guest article in The Big Issue today, Brown talks about Cutting the Tightrope. She explains how earlier this year, ACE updated their guidelines to warn organisations that employees making political statements could breach funding agreements by causing “reputational risk,” which is insane and outrageous (my words, not Ms Brown’s). It had been only a year earlier, that ACE had invited work that openly supported the Ukraine. It became clear that political statements in support of Palestinian human rights were considered dangerous. The change in ACE’s policy led to plays, events, readings, and exhibitions about Palestine being cancelled. In some cases the voices were silenced, in many cases the creatives themselves changed their approach in order to avoid negative repercussions.
DESPITE U-TURN, THAT FOLLOWED, DAMAGE ALREADY DONE
Brown further explains how the public uproar that followed ACE’s policy change led to a U-turn of sorts, but that, unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Theatres are scared about offending anyone. Plays keep getting cancelled. A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, and Patrick Marber’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank are just two examples.
Pics #1 and #2 above (c) BerkeleySqB.
BROWN’S ‘MOST IMPORTANT WORK’
In order to protect the playwrights from potentially becoming blacklisted, only their names are mentioned, but not which playwright wrote which play. At the beginning of the show a comparatively lengthy spoken disclaimer goes on about how the plays are even further removed from the playwrights than that, which triggers some gasps and laughs from the audience. Brown calls Cutting the Tightrope her most important work in her almost 20 years of directing political plays.
DIVERSE CAST AND PLAYWRIGHTS AT CUTTING THE TIGHTROPE AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE
The ethnic and religious background of the playwrights and actors is far from exclusively Arab Muslim. At least one of the actors is Jewish (secular), more than half a dozen are Christian, with the remainder having ancestors in countries as far and wide as Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Turkey, the U.S., and the UK. A surprisingly high percentage identify as queer or transgender, which, of course, is fine in my book. But also very funny. After all, the alphabet people are currently the biggest and most dangerous threat to free speech in the UK. [For the avoidance of doubt, my wife does not share my views on this topic.]
REWRITING HISTORY
Unsurprisingly, the cult members are already at work. For example, Cindy Marcolina, in her review in BroadwayWorld, makes Cutting the Tightrope about “[cancellations of plays and creatives] because of their references to Palestine and trans rights,” which is rather silly. I can – off the back of my head – list two dozen people in the UK who have lost their jobs, been arrested, received death threats, or much, much worse, simply for disagreeing with the trans theocrats who have so successfully infiltrated our institutions. No one in the UK has been cancelled because they stood up for trans rights. Ever.
THE PLAY BEGINS
The performance began with a speech by the talented and very amusing Joel Samuels, who introduces himself (as per his script, but nonetheless somewhat inaccurately) as the producer of the series of plays. For the first time in years I’ve been told off by an usher for taking pictures. In my mind, the play had not yet started.
QUICK SEQUENCE OF PLAYS AND PERFORMANCES
What I really liked about the plays is that they never feel boring. Each mini-play is on average about ten minutes long and each is rather different from the other ones, covering topics such as British colonialism, patriarchy, weapons funding, atrocities of war, genocide, apathy, racism, xenophobia, self-censorship, or the refugee crisis. The majority of plays focus on the Gaza Conflict. But there is also one that is about the treatment of Diane Abbot, a member of the British Parliament (who also visited one of the performances of Cutting the Tightrope), by the Speaker of the House, or, for example, one that focuses on Sudan.
HIGHLIGHTS OF CUTTING THE TIGHTROPE AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE
Highlights include one piece involving the introduction of a girlfriend to her parents in law by her boyfriend, as well as The Florist of Rafah, in essence a moving monologue about the effects of the war on ordinary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. There was an amusing intermission before the actual intermission, when the director had to call a five-minute break because of an issue with the soundboard, which, luckily, was quickly resolved. Actors that stood out for me were Jess Murrain, Sara Masry, and Waleed Elgadi.
Pic #1 (c) Katie Chambers; pic #2 (c) Ali Wright.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON CUTTING THE TIGHTROPE AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE
Ellie & I greatly enjoyed our evening and will certainly look up the playwrights and the director properly, to see what other plays they are working on. 5 out of 5 in my book. The topics of censorship and freedom of expression are super-important. It is brilliant to see such a strong set making the point for the vital role that art can play in fighting the enemies of democracy. It is somewhat encouraging to see that the 2nd “National Culture Walkout” against the silence of art institutions over the crisis in Palestine next to the National Theatre on 29 November was attended by more than 100 actors and creatives. Moreover it included some big names like Tobias Menzies and Emma d’Arcy, whom we have recently seen in The Other Place, After Antigone.
Looking for more reviews of plays, feel welcome to eyeball my articles about White Rabbit Red Rabbit at Soho Place, Exit the King, Hansard, and The Lehman Trilogy, all three at the National Theatre, or The Unseen at Riverside Studios. I’ve also blogged about MoCo, London’s new Modern and Contemporary art museum, the Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael exhibition at the RA, and the Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens, as well as about tours of London by helicopter and by kayak.
