We begin this week by cracking open a can of worms. It seems that the recent controversy surrounding Caryl Churchill's latest play, Seven Jewish Children, has not been confined soley to the UK: it's also reached America, where the play is currently touring.
Rob Weinert-Kendt at the Wicked Stage is linking to a particularly interesting discussion about this between Ari Roth and Jeffrey Goldberg. Roth recently directed Churchill's play for Theatre J, and his friend Goldberg is a liberal Zionist who feels profoundly uncomfortable about what he sees as the show's anti-semitic connotations. Their discussion is pungent and painful, and contains much of the animus that has characterised the conversation over here, albeit carried out in a significantly more engaged and open way.
It is a sign of how contentious this show is that Churchill herself has chosen to talk about it. She rarely ever speaks publicly about her work and frequently refuses interviews. But she gave Roth permission to reproduce this letter she sent him on the Theatre J blog. She makes a compelling case for why she thinks the play is not anti-semitic, but she also makes it clear that she does not think these accusations are just a ploy by people who want to detract from any criticism of Israel.
On the subject of theatre that seeks to be explicitly political, the Playgoer has found a good quote from the playwright Christopher Durang, who is preparing for a show called Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. When asked in the Village Voice whether his work was simply telling people what they wanted to hear, he says: "People said I was preaching to the converted - 'Everybody who goes to the theatre in New York is already liberal, so shut up.' I thought, 'That's so stupid.' Because what am I supposed to do? Book myself magically into the Republican National Convention? Or not talk about it?"
Durang's point is an important one. When playwrights tackle big political subjects they are often accused of being smug and self-referential. Yet talking to an audience who largely agree with you is very common in other areas of life - there aren't many Tories who read the Guardian or lefties who pick up the Telegraph every day. A writer who shares a particular point of view with their audience can still galvanise and educate them on that issue.
In other news, the Forest Fringe is lurching along on its journey toward Edinburgh - taking a bumpy route. According to Andy Field's blog on their website, the excitement of last week's Forest Fringe event at the BAC was soon offset by news that the lighting rig at the Forest Cafe - their home in Edinburgh - needs to be completely rewired. And so, despite the recession, they find themselves in the tricky position of having to raise money to fix this before the festival begins. Their work at the Fringe last year was fantastic, so Noises Off is keeping its fingers crossed that they get the cash they need. If you want to donate, you can do so by going to their website.
And finally, Don Hall, the Angry White Guy from Chicago, is living up to his name, with a piece attacking Matt Freeman's parody of theatre manifestos, which we reported on last week. Hall argues that, in essence, the piece is saying that: "Those of us railing against the status quo should just stop writing about it, shut the fuck up, and accept the world as it is handed to us without complaint." Yet he goes on to point out that surely even Freeman does not believe this. He links to another of Freeman's posts where he quotes Haruki Murakami: "Between a high solid wall and an egg that breaks against it I will always stand on the side of the egg." Surely that's a manifesto not just for theatre, but for life.
