HOW TO ACT
P H O T O :
A L L A N D M M C K
I
I
SECOND ACT Graham Eatough’s intelligent piece of meta-theatre, How to Act, returns to the stage this year. But as Gareth K Vile discovers, it’s back amid a whole new cultural context
26 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018
its
success at
A fter the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, the National Theatre of Scotland’s How to Act is making a rapid return to Scottish theatres. Yet in the few months since its last outing, Graham Eatough’s play has experienced a transformation beyond his control.
‘I’m not sure the text will change hugely, though there are a few approaches that we might revisit,’ says Eatough of the play. ‘But it’s the context that has changed so much. The massive thing that has happened since the Fringe – something profound and historical, at least in the media – is the #MeToo movement. I think we’ll offer a very present frame on this tour through which people can now read the show.’ How to Act’s power dynamic – rel ected in the double meaning of the title, which evokes the setting in a theatre workshop but also asks serious questions about human behaviour – revolves around a conl ict that has a strikingly contemporary relevance. ‘The older director and a younger female actor becomes a charged relationship in a way that the play was pointing towards,’ he explains. ‘But now it’s more pointed and an opportunity to explore the debate.’
When the older director attempts to explain his engagement with cultures beyond the west, his optimistic universalism is challenged by the performer. What begins as a discussion over theatrical technique develops into a wider argument about how dominant ideas can fail to see their own privilege. ‘The play is still primarily about the potential abuse of power. It’s about power relations in a creative sphere and asking who is in control of the story; it’s also about storytelling and different ideas of truth.’ Eatough’s reading of Greek tragedy – with its commitment to the working out of conl icting
ideas – inspired How to Act to address the tension between competing authorities, as the younger actor comes from a culture that the director appears to appropriate. ‘I love that idea that in great tragedy, everyone is right but the ideas are irreconcilable. How to Act is inspired and inl uenced by Greek tragedy,’ he says, but isn’t simply imitating the form. ‘It’s futile to try and write a contemporary tragedy: How to Act is a riff on tragedy.’ The tone’s measured seriousness and a refusal to provide easy answers impressed critics and audiences during its Fringe run at Summerhall, evoking theatre’s potential as a public space for the discussion of difi cult issues.
Eatough’s enthusiasm for theatre’s relevance encourages him to see the play as an opportunity for audiences to rel ect on their own values. ‘Theatre opens up a space for discussion that is the precursor to developing compassion,’ he rel ects. ‘And the only reason we are interested in ethics is to develop compassion, and be critical of the right things.’ It is the intensity, however, of the confrontation between two people who represent radically different ways of thinking that makes How to Act more than simply a cerebral exercise.
Unlike the director in the play, Eatough takes a tentative approach to solutions. He is suitably guarded about revealing too much of the plot, but his synopsis speaks of the play’s appeal to a common, if not universal interest. ‘It tries to ask a question about the tendency to try to look for a story that is relevant to everyone,’ he concludes. ‘That’s valid, but How to Act opens up some questions around that.’
How to Act, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 6–Sat 10 Mar; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 13–Sat 17 Mar.