I Get Knocked Down... But I Get Up Again

Boff Whalley's Anfield Musical, Cultural Recovery Grants and other tales of rising and resilience

From the Lawrence Batley theatre’s co-production of The Picture Of Dorian Gray (social media addiction) to Slung Low’s Beyond The Market podcasts (food poverty), theatre-makers in Yorkshire don’t shy away from the hot issues. And I thought, when I started this newsletter, that any exploration of political questions would arise naturally from a discussion of shows. Mostly it has.

An exception is race. It’s honestly not the dramatic works themselves. No. It’s the plethora of overwrought BLM statements, the gender-and-ethnicity-obsessed funding-speak, the position statements and manifestos, and beating of chests, and rending of garments and vowing to do better. That’s where it all gets stupid. For example, The New Normal Manifesto by freelancers associated with independent producers Fuel created an impractical 10-point plan (which included calling for a ‘black therapist’ to be present when dealing with ‘black subject matter’) based on highly contentious critical social justice ideas. And …