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Time Frame
for
Historical Play
ON MISCELLANEOUS THEATRE ISSUES - by G.L. Horton
JB wrote: "I have written a play called 'The Wall', about
a woman working on a building site in Britain in the mid-1980s
at the time of the miners' strike. Twice now - once at a reading,
once in an otherwise very supportive written feedback - I have
been told that the 1980s is too recent to be 'history', but not
recent enough to be contemporary. It's kind of stuck in an out-of-date
no-man's-land in between. 'Your play would have been interesting
to audiences 20 years ago, and will be interesting in 20 years
time, but it's not interesting now.' I'm not sure I'm convinced
by this. Doesn't it imply that you just can't write about the
1980s? Can writers really have 'no-go' decades? And how did Billy
Elliot get away with it?! The reason it is set in the 1980s was
initially that it is based on the true story of my friend, who
worked on a building site in the 1980s. But also, having it at
the same time as the miners' strike and the terrible reign of
Margaret Thatcher draws out some themes - keeping on fighting
when all looks lost, the use of unemployment and training schemes
to bludgeon workers, attitudes to women in politics and women
on building sites, overcoming sexism to benefit the workers as
a group. And Jean (the main character) suggests that if something
is not done about the sexism, then women will still be putting
up with this crap in 20 years time - ie. now, and we are doing!!
And anyway, I dotted it with various cultural references to the
1980s - inlcuding getting permission from Paul Weller to use Style
Council songs - and I am really loathe to write them out by pushing
the play further back into history or dragging it into the present
day. Any thoughts or tips?"
This is nonsense: I have plays that are now "historical"
b/c they were written 20-30 years ago which are just now getting
a first production, and every month I see plays written and
first produced in the 80s which are now working their way down
to community theatre after having been done Off-B'way. "Angels
In America" is set in the 80s, first produced in the 90's,
a TV hit last year.
However: the comment may mean that you have more period detail
in the play than you need--- stuff that would have been Ok b/c
"news" to most people if your play had appeared as
the event unfolded, and might be necessary (and added by designer
or director) once the event has receded into the past and details
are forgotten. Now, it comes across as "telling us what
we know", which audiences tend to resent. This is always
a challenge: what can you assume the audience knows, and what
must you put in? (3/18/05)
Archives—Essays and Commentary
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