Cymru/Wales: Bipolar Nation

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Friday 2 March 2012

Free Theatre Movement

Well I've been tweeting about it in an abstract way, I might as well get some thoughts down about it. As mentioned before I am a Benefit Scrounger but when I frequent Chapter or the Sherman or any Theatre Producing venue for that matter I am expected to pay admission prices that are only a couple of quid off the full admission price! Benefit is not a couple of quid off a full salary however! I am neither economist or mathematician therefore I propose a 'Free Theatre Movement'. There has probably been one before in history and I'm sure Googling will reveal something. (Dramatic Pause) No there has been no such thing. I know that the San Fransisco Mime Troupe of the sixties and early seventies would  pass a hat around at the end of the performance. I propose this because the last two offerings I have been to, I have been sadly disappointed(that word again) and on leaving the theatre, wished that I had saved my money for food. When I was not a Benefit Scrounger and on a full salary in London I would go almost every weekend to replenish my Drama Teaching batteries to see a performance at the Royal Court, The National, The Tricycle or Soho Theatre sometimes the Almeida, sometimes the Donmar Warehouse, perhaps the Arcola in Dalston or the Lyric in Hammersmith, the Young Vic also!(I got arrested for name dropping once)The Royal Court had a policy that at the Saturday Matinee, that you could stand for 50pence. You could see quality theatre at a competitive price. You were guaranteed quality. 
It would be very unfair to compare the Welsh with the London output so I won't. What I will do, is in this time of double dip recession put forward a manifesto of sorts for a 'Free Theatre' so that the spectacle is Free. Free for Benefit Scroungers like me! One performance is held over for Concessions only, the elderly, students and of course Benefit Scroungers. What a lovely mix of audience that would be! Or perhaps, the leviathans that are the producing houses make a habit of putting performances on for free, to ostensibly encourage Theatre attendance. We've been told this week that Rugby is better Drama than Theatre. That is a sad indictment on Theatre whether you are a Rugby fan or not! So from deepest darkest Wales where the Arts are subsidised but not as heavily as England, I propose that a 'Free Theatre Movement' begins where students and aspiring actors and creatives and bohemians and free spirits et al, throw off the chains of capitalism and pretend that there isn't a fourth wall stopping them. I suggest that with the coming of Spring and Summer that ad-hoc performances spring up around the towns and cities of Wales. Let them be agit-propaganda, let them attack the politicians and the institutions, not worrying that it will affect their career prospects in the future. 
Surely it is better to have a riot of color and theatre, than a riot!
Let the People Play!
Should it take off, you heard it here first.





2 comments:

  1. There is lots of Free Theatre! 3-6 Producing Companies in Chicago are exploring Free Models.

    http://oracletheatre.org/Oracle_Free_Theatre.html

    Here is an interview about it in Chicago:
    http://www.theatreinchicago.com/talk/interior.php?podshowID=353

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good News Brad! Chicago sounds like my kind of town.

    ReplyDelete

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