Curve, Leicester
27th April,
2017
The National’s verbatim Brexit response piece has rolled into
Leicester as part of its wide UK tour following a run in the Dorfman.
How can the National Theatre be truly national and how can this
Brexit piece truly speak for the whole nation? The ‘National’ part of the
National Theatre is regularly, as it should be, scrutinised regarding its programming;
audience outreach; diversity (of writers, actors, directors, management,
creatives, audiences); and responsibility for work to reach beyond the metropolitan,
hipster South Bank including debates over NT Live versus its commitment to
touring and much more.
6 actors representing different parts of the United Kingdom –
namely Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the South West, the North East and
the East Midlands – meet Britannia, a sort of mythical authority figure to
discuss the forthcoming Brexit vote. In what plays out as a sort of model UN
meeting, Rufus Norris’ production brings together verbatim soundbites of
members of the public’s views on Brexit, immigration, sovereignty, jobs,
politicians, etc. from an array of political viewpoints.
Leicester(shire): Red Leicester. Melton Mowbray pork pies. Premier
League champions of 2016. Richard III found under a car park. National Space
Centre. Narborough Road, thought to be the country’s most multicultural road.
Bradgate Park. Curve. Melton Road. The Attenborough brothers. Gary Lineker. Adrian
Mole. The list goes on. The Asian actor (Seema Bowri) who represents the East
Midlands in My Country, and in
particular the people of Leicester, calls the city ‘the centre of England’. She
affects a Leicester accent to evoke a person quietly complaining that ‘you don’t
see many faces like mine as you used to and that ‘the city doesn’t feel as safe
as it did’ (I’m paraphrasing). In a different accent, she becomes a person
praising Leicester’s diversity saying that it is equally represented by ‘Feast
India’ (an Indian buffet in the Melton Road area) and ‘Mrs Bridges’ Tea Rooms’
(an old quaint café in the city near the cathedral).
The joy with a list like mine above is that it gives a basic introductory,
tourist’s guide to Leicester. But that is also its problem: it’s only a list.
It doesn’t give a detailed insight into what it’s like to live in Leicester (as
my girlfriend does), what it’s like to live in Leicestershire (as I do), what
does it mean (if anything) to be from Leicester, nor does it give an idea to what
is not so great about being from Leicester. It’s a list of hackneyed labels, like
the patriotic clichés in Hugh Grant’s press conference speech in Love, Actually and not dissimilar to
Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry given to Britannia in My Country: ‘I am your memory, your dialects, your cathedrals,/
your mosques and markets,… motorways and railway lines, your hospitals, your
cenotaphs with paper poppies fading in the rain’. Duffy’s input may be loaded
with symbolism and patriotism but – like it sometimes seemed clumsy in Duffy
and Norris’ Everyman – it occasionally
jars with the verbatim or feels like an attempt to crowbar in mawkishness. The
character of Britannia feels like an under-baked idea to highlight how high the
stakes were/are over the EU Referendum and what a seismic event in Britain’s
history it will be.
I feel there’s a push and pull issue with the play in that it
wants to voice specific and individual ideas as well as aiming to be all-encompassing
and representative (impossible) of the whole nation. Because My Country presents multiple opinions from
a few politicians to the electorate (and a child), people might think it
pretends to verisimilitude, in that it is fully representative of the UK.
However, the verbatim opinions are reduced to soundbites performed by an accent
or a caricature, albeit ones extremely well realised by the cast. In a way, it becomes
almost as cardboard cut-out as Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice when I think it aspires to be deeper than
that (not that I don’t like that play). Incidentally, if you want plays which
explore key issues offered up by the Leave side in the campaign such as fishing
and pig farming then I recommend Bean’s Under
the Whaleback and Harvest.
Despite all these reservations about the inevitably problematic
process and text of My Country, it works
as a vital and enjoyable piece of theatre, incredibly well performed by an
ensemble cast. Special mention, however, has to go to Penny Layden as Britannia,
who morphs from the stiff-lipped diplomacy of David Cameron to the gurning,
slouching Boris Johnson (whose speeches about lobsters and cornflakes are
unbelievably real!) to the cocky, broad-shouldered confidence of Nigel Farage. Just
as the Referendum was divisive it seems that My Country is as well, perhaps a genius way of the play’s form being
reflective of its subject matter.
If you’re wondering how Leicester voted:
Leicester:
Remain: 70,808 (51.1%)
Leave: 67,992 (48.9%)
My borough, in south Leicestershire:
Remain: 14,292 (45.4%)
Leave: 17,173 (54.6%)
My Country plays at Curve, Leicester until 29th
April and then tours. For more information visit nationaltheatre.org.uk
The company of My Country. Credit: Sarah Lee. |
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