Friday, March 05, 2010

Being political has changed a lot...

"Well. I'm really interested in what 'political' is," said award-winning screenwriter and playwright Jack Thorne in last Sunday's Observer (yes, you're right, I should have blogged this earlier). "I think there's something generational in the type of political playwright we have," Jack goes on. "My mum and dad went on marches, my mum went to jail for the CND, they were very active political people."

Jack's touted as a political playwright. His mum and dad went on marches. Did he ever go on marches? Does he intend to go on marches? Be very active, politically? I don't know. But it seems unlikely; this feature lends you to believe he's happy that his mum went to jail because it's saved him the bother. "But the boundaries," says Jack, excusing himself from marching duties and getting him thinking about food, "of what political is have changed a lot: you can now be political as a consumer, for example – changing what you eat. Younger playwrights tend to pose questions more. I want to write stuff – and I haven't yet – that goes, 'This is the problem, I don't necessarily know the answer.'"

Don't expect to see Jack down the front of the next demo that you're on, then. I don't have this trouble, writing flippant comedy, of course. I just have to laugh a lot. Much easier.

Enter the new wave of political playwrights at The Observer

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you can be political just by your choice of food put me down as a global liberal. I'll have a go at eating anything from anywhere in the world. I've been on marches in support of it too. Marched down to the chippy, marched down to the Chinese takeaway.