F E S T I VA L T H E AT R E | Can Theatre Change the World? Can Theatre Change the World? Splintered
<< died from HIV/AIDS and 37 million still live with it’. However, Hall is not content to limit his activism to the stage.
‘First Time has allowed me to promote the incredible developments in HIV healthcare and prevention to a huge audience,’ he continues. ‘Theatre allows audiences to directly refl ect on their role and responsibility within our society. During the original run of the show in 2018, we had a whole host of participatory and wraparound activity which increased the audience reach from the 420 who saw the show to 4600 who engaged with a workshop, visited our community exhibition or joined in a discussion. When we come to the Fringe, we’re proud to be partnered with HIV Scotland and will be delivering talks, workshops and fundraising – including an opportunity to donate by text. It’s my way of giving back and contributing to the aim of ending HIV in a generation.’ If First Time combines representation and workshops, Nouveau Riche, who stormed the Fringe last year with Queens of Sheba, hold a belief in the theatrical event as an impetus for change. Writer Ryan Calais Cameron says that ‘it is the sense of community that I keep coming back to; for an appointed time we are all watching this experience together, laughing together, talking together, cheering, crying, in shock and in awe, and then we all leave together and evoke conversations with those we came with and those who we have just met.’ His script, Typical, takes a true story and uses theatre to challenge preconceptions.
‘It is the story of a black man who is just a man when he is in his home, but when he leaves he must navigate through society’s ideas and prejudices about what it means to be black. His story brings up questions about belonging and identity: he fought in the Falklands war, he sacrifi ced himself for his nation, yet is that enough to class you as British? Can you be black and truly be British? I wanted to explore the reality of something that has felt like a huge contradiction throughout my life. Especially now in a post-Brexit referendum Britain.’
By addressing a fundamental and timely concern, Cameron affi rms the potential of performance within the public sphere, lending the subject an immediacy, intimacy and
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transforming an idea into an emotive and emotional discussion. Emily Aboud, director of Splintered, has taken a similar belief and created a queer cabaret-theatre that has been infl uenced by Caribbean notions of carnival. ‘Representation matters,’ says Aboud, ‘and most resistance movements began in cabaret bars. Society currently promotes a racist structure, a homophobic structure and a patriarchal structure – theatre (and all art) should rise to meet it.’
Splintered simultaneously celebrates the cultural diversity of Caribbean society and questions its homophobia: Aboud ponders how a society that energetically embraces so many religions and communities struggles to include queerness. ‘It came to a head in 2018 when Trinidad and Tobago had its fi rst Pride and I saw the sheer amount of queer people, celebrating and rebelling – it was fantastic,’ Aboud says. ‘I just wanted to speak to people and see what they had to say. I learned that so much of the queer experience is shared and, unfortunately, discovered that trauma around coming out was universal. I wanted to create a show that separated the trauma from queerness.’
Across the
the Fringe, importance of autobiographical performance, the ubiquity of feminist-driven theatre and the increasing number of shows that engage with contemporary politics suggest a sustained belief in the power of theatre as a public space for discussion: Typical, Splintered and First Time, in different ways, challenge assumptions and make a connection between the stage and society. The question now becomes how these conversations are shaped through the responses of audiences to infl uence attitudes and policies.
First Time, Summerhall, 2–25 Aug, (not 12, 19), 4.15pm, £14.50 (£12.50). Preview 31 Jul, £5. Typical, Pleasance Courtyard, 3–25 Aug (not 13), 4.30pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7.
Splintered, Bedlam Theatre, 2–25 Aug (not 13, 20), 9.30pm, £10 (£8). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £8 (£6).