After a sell-out pilot run in the spring of this year Cutting the Tightrope: The Divorce of Politics from Art will be bringing a longer run to the larger main house space at the Arcola theatre from 26 November – 7 December 2024…
In a series of rapid political responses – with updated text and additional pieces to reflect the ever-changing landscape – prompted by the now seemingly quite regular of censoring of theatre focusing on Palestine, Cutting the Tightrope: The Divorce of Politics from Art brings together a number of award-winning playwrights – a hard-hitting array of voices – who collectively form an urgent response to the creeping repression of dissent in society and the arts.
The collection of vital and confronting short plays brings together UK-based writers from activists to comedians, Russian to Iraqi heritage, Jewish to Muslim background with a guttural reaction to the politics of today.
Director Cressida Brown:
“The stories we believe shape the reality around us. It is only by our thoughts being provoked that real societal change becomes attainable. Take away an artist’s voice and we all lose a means of changing our world. But more than ever before artists are being told to Shut Up. From ongoing venue censorship of anything deemed the ‘wrong type of political’, through to high profile actors being guaranteed a twitter pile-on every time they voice a political opinion; we are witnessing open attempts to sever Politics from Art.”
Political censorship in theatre has rarely been such a hot topic; Last month, Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre cancelled its production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The arguments for and against the staging of the work (primarily focused on the phrase “Free Palestine”) were wide and varied. But did anyone really have the right to censor the director Stef O’Driscoll’s voice
Earlier in October, playwright Patrick Marber’s new play, created alongside the writer Nathan Englander, ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank’ – a work that the Jewish Chronical recently cited as “a play as Jewish as they come” found their original venue had rescinded their offer of a space amidst concerns it could spark protests. It was moved at the 11th hour to the Marylebone Theatre.
Cutting the Tightrope: the Divorce of Politics from Art does not focus exclusively on the censorship of work created to examine Israel/Palestine; the work included in the compilation ranges in topics that extend far beyond that focal point. But equally, the works are proud to openly address these issues, and to push to give a voice to artists, at a time when so many theatre makers are being silenced on this topic.
It’s also vitally important to be aware that it is not simply the decisions of individual theatre venues that are leading to this culling of autonomy on stage – indeed; Cutting the Tightrope was curated in the aftermath of Arts Council England’s guidance abruptly updating to warn that political statements made by individuals linked to an organisation could cause reputational risks and might therefore potentially halt funding. Now with the American elections looming and violence escalating abroad this updated Cutting the Tightrope remains necessary as part of a determination to look at how these ongoing and concerning challenges to freedom of expression are influencing our lives.
The works are written within the context of this incendiary moment in the arts. And, although the playwrights’ names are advertised, who wrote which play will remain unknown so the artists feel there can be freedom of expression without fear.
It includes work from Hassan Abdulrazzak (Sea Things, Southwark Playhouse; Ragedom, Central School of Speech and Drama), Mojisola Adebayo (Stars, Northern Stage; Family Tree, GDIF), Philip Arditti (Burnt at the Stake, or The Whole of the Truth, Shakespeare’s Globe; English Kings Killing Foreigners, Camden People’s Theatre), Sonali Bhattacharyya (Chasing Hares, Young Vic; Two Billion Beats, Orange Tree Theatre), and Ahmed Masoud (Vanished – The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda; The Shroud Maker, London).
They are joined by Nina Bowers (Values, Mantis; Camden People’s Theatre), Roxy Cook (A Woman Walks into a Bank, Theatre503; English Kings Killing Foreigners, Camden People’s Theatre), Ed Edwards (England & Son, Edinburgh Fringe and Manchester HOME; The Political History of Smack and Crack, Edinburgh Fringe and Soho Theatre) and Afsaneh Gray (The Other Woman, Audible; The Border, Theatre Centre).
Completing the line-up are Dawn King (The Trials, Donmar Warehouse; Foxfinder, West End), Nina Segal (The Good Person of Szechwan, The Lyric; Shooting Hedda Gabler, Rose Theatre), and Sami Abu Wardeh (The Sheikh, Channel 4Digital comedy debut; Bedu, Soho Theatre) Waleed Elgadi (Boicrs in the Dark, Globe Theatre; Ghost House. Good Chance Theatre) and Joel Samuels (Sugar Coat, Southwark Playhouse, Remythed Omnibus, Assembly, Tour).
Director Cressida Brown:
“Of course, the flipside to this argument is that with the privilege of having a platform comes the responsibility to be thoughtful and considered and this must always be recognised – but silencing artists and cancelling performances simply cannot be the way forward. Ironically it is because of this silencing that artist’s voices need to be amplified more than ever. Those in charge must grow a backbone and unite to find new ways to protect artists’ voices, before it’s too late”.
This rapid response event is created by the creative team behind Walking the Tightrope: the tension between Art and Politics, a collection of plays by playwrights including Caryl Churchill, Hannah Khalil, Gbolahan Obisesan, Mark Ravenhill, Timberlake Wertenbaker; which featured on Radio 4’s Today Programme and Front Row and was New York Times and The Scotsman’s Pick of the Fringe before transferring to the Houses of Parliament.
There will be post-show panel discussions with guest speakers from activism, journalism, politics, and the arts who will dissect a different, related topic. Previous panellists have included Ben Jamal (Palestine Solidarity Campaign), Emily Stevenson (Na’amod, Jewish Peace org). Matt Kennard (Declassified), Halimo Hussain (Black Lives Matter), and Zoe Lafferty (Associate Director of West Bank’s Freedom Theatre, Jenin).
There will also be an in-person workshop on Saturday 7 December at the Arcola Theatre from 11.00am – 1.00pm. Created in tandem at the Arcola and presented alongside MAKAN – an organisation which promotes ‘Education for Liberation’. “Self- Censorship: How to talk about Palestine” the event is free to audiences to attend and can be signed up for on a first-come-first-serve basis when booking tickets to Cutting the Tightrope.
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/cutting-the-tightrope-the-divorce-of-politics-from-art-2/wE
