Engaging with the local community ... Moonwalking in Chinatown. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
For many years, political theatre in Britain has been largely represented by the state-of-the-nation play, undoubtedly producing some of the most dynamic shows this country has ever seen. However, we are now desperately in need of a change.
Let me remind you of a few things about the state of our nation.
In our nation over 17 million people have chosen not to vote for who they are governed by. In 2005, almost two thirds of people aged 18-24 didn't bother voting. And thanks to the fact that we are being hauled along in the pursuit of democracy by a handed-down, patched-up, dinosaur of a voting system, one of the hundred richest men in England is in a position to throw a bit of cash around, impress a few people in some vital swing seats and effectively buy his party into government.
In our nation you can't protest outside your own parliament, unless the government has told you they don't mind. In our nation we justify wars after the fact based on the brutal policies of their leaders, while abetting the indefinite incarceration and torture of those we deem suspect, and posing with the leader of a country that executes homosexuals and won't allow women to vote.
I'm sorry if I you've heard all this before, but I think it's important. It's important because political engagement in this country is in crisis. Because abhorrent things are happening and at present we either won't or, more worryingly, can't do anything to change them.
The problem isn't what we're being told. We are drowning in information. 24 hour news, live digital feeds, cameramen dodging bullets chasing soldiers across battlefields; no sooner has a conspiracy been discovered than it has been named, critiqued and made into a movie starring George Clooney. The state of our nation is constantly reported, analysed and over-analysed, on film, television and on stage. All with little to no effect. The problem is not what we are being told; it is how we are telling it.
Now is not the time for polite social commentary. Now is not the time for what critic Andrew Haydon describes as "exotic emotional pornography" masquerading as insight into the diverse make-up of modern British society. Now is not the time for us to sit meekly in the stalls and nod our heads sagely at the truths played out in front of us.
In a time when we are saturated by political messages I think theatre needs to realise that the form in which we say something can be as political as what it is that's being said. And this is where theatre can be a more effective vehicle for change than film or television. Because theatre is about doing as much as it is about describing. It's about being somewhere in time and space, being part of an event. Theatre that embraces this liveness and this localness can really achieve something.
Site-specific theatre, like the Soho's recent Moonwalking in Chinatown, can engage an audience with an environment or local community in startling and beautiful ways. Community-based theatre can empower the disenfranchised and prompt political growth; just look at The Grassmarket Project, whose work creates an environment in which opposite ends of society can look each other in the face, undoubtedly changing both. And the interactive work of companies such as Rabbit and Blast Theory can encourage audiences to take the initiative; forming communities, sharing information and working together to forge solutions.
In all these examples, the potential for grappling with social change is not so much in what the companies are saying but in how it's being said. These exciting forms of theatre are teaching people how to act again; how to engage with their environment and the people around them. And for me, as melodramatic as it sounds, this is the first step towards mending our wounded democracy.
