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Art and The Movement
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that took on the slow privatisation of Chicago’s schools,
stopping them becoming little businesses.
Townsend Productions performed extracts from
Tolpuddle Theatre, and United We Stand – and their
current touring production Dare Devil Rides to Jamara,
by Neil Gore, his new play about Clem Beckett a
motorbike speed rider who volunteered to fight fascists
in the Spanish Civil War. Another character is the
Marxist critic Christopher Caudwell. Caudwell on stage?
Fascinating stuff. This is sophisticated drama, not agit’
prop.
An invigorated audience generated some interesting
ideas for;
1.
alternative arts councils, funded by the Trade
Unions
2.
a centre/theatre as a home to working class theatre.
3.
importance of the revival of satire
4.
use of a common language around the arts,
whatever the level.
5.
professionalism and excellence
6.
importance of a fair rate to artists, making
communities stronger.
This was a powerful and timely day that reminded us
that art can serve politics by revealing and mirroring
our society. It can put the oomph into a campaign,
inspire and motivate, help the ideas slip down nicely in
education events, but it is its transformational nature
that’s so important, and the role that art plays in a
fulfilled life.
Like food, it nourishes, and we can’t live without it.
But this was a given; no need to rehearse and finesse
psychological theories about art and the individual and
society. This event was a step on the way to a three
day Liberating Arts festival planned for November 3,4,5
2017.
As the trade union movement gears up towards a high
level of struggle during the next few years cultural work
will be strengthened to appeal to the head and heart.
For art changes people, and so does activism. Together
they’re dynamite.
Doug Nicholls concluded with an observation about
our national poet Shakespeare;
“It’s no accident that our great national poet and
playwright was on our side, a socialist. Shakespeare in his
history plays and great tragedies depicts the economic and
moral collapse of the feudal system, in his Roman plays he
shows how any socially divided society is undemocratic
and ruled by despots and in his comedies, particularly plays
like The Comedy of Errors, he shows how the market driven
economy destroys social relationships and how human
identity is distorted by profit and the cash nexus.”
Doug Nicholls
Photo courtesy of
Kevin Hayes