This brings back some powerful memories. In my 6th form at a grammar school in Mansfield, going to Nottingham Playhouse (as we did, regularly, to see Shakespeare and Webster etc) and seeing Jonathan Pryce as Gethin. I'd never seen anything as visceral, as funny, as dangerous on the stage (not sure that I have since, TBH). I remember someone heckled Pryce during Gethin's act, and we weren't sure if this was a plant or a spontaneous reaction from the audience, but he took it in his stride. There were 3 young actors in that era at the Playhouse, Pryce, Rea and Tom Wilkinson, all of whom I've followed with great interest since - it was so obvious even then that they were major talents.
I studied English at MMU a decade ago and I was struck by the sheer number of lauded poets and playwrights who came from working class backgrounds (Shelagh Delaney (also the child of a bus inspector!), Andrea Dunbar, Alan Sillitoe, Edward Bond, Barry Hines, etc).
It was a different universe they occupied and I mourn the loss of political, angry voices in the mainstream cultural conversation.
Yes, absolutely. This is the thing, really: that pushing for more working-class writers isn't just about doing the right thing, it's something we all profit from. More voices from across the spectrum meaning more interesting and varied work! Everyone you cited above feel like evidence of this...who's doing it like Dunbar today? Hard to imagine a working class 15 year old today — or honestly, any 15 year old today — having their first play premiere at the Royal Court Theatre (If you're reading this and you know — please tell me! Possibly I'm just out of the loop and missing some great contemporary playwrights)
That was brilliant. Sacha Lord one day, Trevor Griffiths the next. Couldn't help thinking about Hope Mill Theatre in the context of this piece. They are the great hope for Manchester theatre. BTW, went to the Royal Ex last week and it was empty. Time for another article?
Thanks Peter! Interesting point about the Royal Exchange — one to look into once I'm better (I'm recovering from a broken foot so reporting is a little limited at the moment).
The current season feels unadvenrurous. I saw Sweat. It's had reasonable reviews, but frankly I found it boring. Don't think I've ever thought that about a REx production before
Agreed, I saw Sweat last week and I'm sorry to say it was a bit crap. Not a great production but also just not a brilliant play, I'm quite amazed it won the Pulitzer. I have the season ticket this year and thought the first play (Shed: exploded view) was by far the best of the three I've seen.
Hey Cath! Thanks for this kind feedback. The Tom Mann play is called 'Such Impossibilities' and unfortunately was never shown. The BBC commissioned it as part of their series 'The Edwardians' and then declined to shoot it on the grounds of cost. You can read it though - it's in the Faber book 'Collected Plays for Television: Trevor Griffiths'.
Really good Saturday read Sophie - Trevor Griffiths' work deserves to be more widely known and, although I was very sad to read about his death a couple of months ago, the obituaries do seem to have sparked a new interest. Amazing now to think that Bill Brand, with Jack Shepherd, was given such a prime spot on ITV in the 70s! Interesting point about the "class ceiling" which applies to other areas of work too.
Thanks for this Kath, couldn't agree more re: Griffiths work needing to be more widely known. Bill Brand is great but as you say, impossible to imagine something as subtle and slow-paced as it on primetime national TV these days.
This was such a fascinating piece. A brilliant combination of the local (I recognise some of the places you mention) and the sort of socio-cultural/historical that I only feel I pick up by happenstance (I moved to Manchester from the US). You can still see, a bit, the impact of echoes of this on the city. Thanks for helping me know the place I live a bit better.
Hey Jennie, I was concerned this might not resonate with someone who was newer to Manchester, so this was really nice to read! Thanks for this lovely comment.
This is such an interesting article Sophie . It draws us back to a past cultural life we had If we were alive then ,and I was.
It's all too easy these days to exist in a 'now' bubble and yes I know life is very difficult for many today, too difficult to look back ,just getting on with living.
We are ,however, poorer beings If we neglect the amazing culture that was around then along with all the negative aspects . Your story Sophie helps us to see and appreciate that.
Reminds me of the time I was a schoolboy extra (having received the call at MGS) at the Stables in 1969. It was an excellent initiative by Sidney Bernstein that gave opportunities to playwrights like John Bowen who’s play ‘The Disorderly Women’ - an update of Euripides ‘The Bacchae’ - featured an amazing array of actors including bizarrely Bill Roache (and me!).
Coincidentally John Bowen’s ‘Robin Red Breast’ is itself currently getting an update at Aviva Studios - virtually on the same site.
Wow, this is great — what it was like being an extra? Coolest after-school job ever. Yep, I didn't want to get too granular in the piece but while there was a business case for creating the Stables (they fended off a bid from a rival TV company for a new contract and had to prove that they were investing in the local community) there was also an artistic motivation. Namely, that Sidney Bernstein had apparently always dreamt of starting a theatre in Manchester. I've been dying to see Robin Red Breast, but everything's a bit tricky atm because I'm recovering from a Jones fracture and walking is challenging — is it good?
This is a great piece, Sophie. It’s great to see the Mill challenging some of the cultural shibboleths that others like to leave well alone and I’m hoping this will continue. It comes as no surprise at all that the arts are continuing in their failure to attract working class writers like Trevor and despite the ACE report ‘New Audiences’ (1998-2003) that pointed out the same thing and the countless reports since it doesn’t look like anything will change any time soon. If this kind of writing and commentary keeps up from the Mill, maybe some of Manchester’s cultural cosa nostra will start to pay attention and things will begin to change.
Hi Robert, thanks for this very generous response to my piece. Depressing to hear that the ACE report highlighted exactly the same thing — what do you think the solution/s is/are? For me, reading about the 70s, it feels like there was a lot of great context (not necessarily well-considered government policy, but factors that happened to be in place) that allowed people to make creative work alongside their job or AS their job — lower rents, decent welfare state, in the case of Griffiths specifically, teaching not being such an all-consuming job as it is these days. Not to be a knee-jerk pessimist, but I'd be surprised if Griffiths was able to make it today (especially if he was writing the same kinds of work, largely with a historical political focus) or at least reach the same numbers of people.
I think you’re absolutely right that Trevor wouldn’t be given the time of day today. I said as much about Shelagh Delaney and others in a comment a few months back on Joshi’s piece on Dave Moutrey and the colonisation of the arts by the middle classes. Just to expand a bit on my comment about the New Audiences of the late 90s: in the past few years the University of Warwick, ACE (again) the Labour Party, Equity and even the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation have all come to the same conclusion - the arts are just nowhere near as diverse as they like to think they are or they pretend to be and that is as true in Manchester as it is anywhere else.
How to fix it is fairly simple and surprisingly easy. The real problem is the will to fix it which doesn’t appear to exist anywhere. My own opinion is that the creative industries hate the working classes. They treat working class lives in purely Hobbesian terms - solitary, brutish and short. Here’s some suggestions off the top of my head - and I’m keeping this strictly local because that’s where much of my own experience as a writer is.
Encourage new writing. This should really go without saying. The Bruntwood Prize at the RX is meant to be open to all and theoretically it is. Look on their website and the last four winners are experienced writers who have had some form of professional training or previous theatre experience. This is fine as it goes. You don’t study in the creative industries only to find yourself locked out of them, but there is a distinct lack of new talent being scouted. Go out and look for it. Look to schools and community arts places. Above all, listen. Every single one of us has a story worth telling. People don’t approach the big places like HOME, Factory and RX because they think they’re not good enough. They are. A few years ago when I was staging one of my own plays I wrote to HOME to enquire about rehearsal space and theatre hire. It was just an enquiry, that’s all. I got a rather snotty reply telling me they only work with their own chosen partners so there was no point me even asking. They didn’t say how I could become one of their chosen partners. I expect its some kind of secret nod or handshake or someone who knows someone. Maybe its the same way that Sacha Lord gets his ACE application waved through while the rest of us uncultured slobs have to get in line and do all kinds of acrobatics. Funding is not actually the problem here. ACE have buckets of money and a lot of it left over at the end of the financial year. The problem is who gets access to it.
Drop the working class act. Everybody. The BBC won’t even use the phrase anymore. They use the phrase ‘disadvantaged socio-economic background’ which is utterly meaningless. The term working class is like dust in their mouths. I’ve been told by people in the arts that they envy me my own back ground because it’s ‘genuine’. Why? So is theirs, so is everybody’s. Also, your background is the easiest thing to lie about and I know people who have or massively downplayed their own background so they can be accepted. The arts should not be a race to the social bottom. Conversely, working class people will only be attracted to the arts when the middle classes get their foot off their neck and stop claiming it for their own. Sick to the back teeth of people claiming their grandad was working class or scouring their family album for pictures of some faded antecedent going to work in a shawl because they think it give them some kind of special kudos. Pack it in. Did *they* go down a mine or fight in a war? Then I’ll listen to their stories. Otherwise, I don’t care. Besides, most of the people I know are working class and a lot of them are arseholes. Can we please start judging people on the quality off what they produce, not what they say their background is or what their fashionable opinion might be this week.
Rehearsal space: give it for free. If places like those listed above are getting public funding they should be putting something back. Ask anyone who has tried staging a production and one of the biggest expenses is rehearsal space and theatre hire. There is a lot of space in HOME and Factory that just isn’t used a lot of the time. Give it for free for people to rehearse stuff that isn’t necessarily on at those venues. The RX has in the past given up its space for free to political activist theatre that benefits absolutely nobody so I know it can be done
I know what I’m about to say is sacrilege around here, but hear me out. For the love of God, Manchester. Please. I am begging you.Stop acting like the Hacienda, Factory and Tony Wilson is the be all and end all of all artistic creativity in this city. It isn’t now and it wasn’t then. Of all the people reading this site I doubt there are more than a half a dozen who ever went there. Stop venerating it like it’s Chartres cathedral or something. It was a crap night club which bred disproportionate levels of violence, including sexual violence and crime the city still feels today. It’s nothing to be proud of. Manchester’s never-ending supply of chroniclers should write about the hundreds if not thousands of lives that violence has affected or just shut it. It’s cultural impact globally is negligible to the point of non existence. Be honest about it or get over yourselves. There should be a by-law passed in Manchester where anybody who starts a sentence with ‘Back in the day, in the Hacienda…’ should be hoofed right out the door. It’s a cultural crutch for men of a certain age and it should be kicked away. If we must look back for inspiration - and we should always be looking over our shoulder - then lets look back to Trevor and Shelagh and Anthony Burgess and Dame Hilary and others.
Next. Pay your performers. This might sound like basic stuff, but one of the main reasons the arts are not attractive to working classes is because quite frankly, they’re too smart to work for free and the industry its horribly exploitative. This breeds a something for nothing mentality which is taken as the norm. Another true story: when Maxine Peake staged her play ‘Queens of the Coal Age’ a few years back at the RX a call went out for a ‘community ensemble’ who were background players, on stage, being asked to rehearse several hours a week and be on stage for all performances working for free. I wrote to them and complained about this saying it was basically exploitation. A play about the exploitation of workers during the miners strike and its aftermath actually exploiting workers in a play written by someone who sets themselves up as some kind of working class, socialist scion was the absolute height of hypocrisy. This kind of exploitation is the industry norm. If Manchester want to show how ‘we do things differently here’ then start paying your performers. The fact is we don’t do things differently here. We do things just as shabbily and poorly as everywhere else.
As far as the creatives themselves are concerned then my advice would be to step out of your little circles and start being a little bit different. Nobody will do that because they are scared of losing friends and, ultimately, influence. I used the phrase ‘cultural cosa nostra’ quite deliberately earlier. There are maybe a hundred people running the creative scene in Manchester and every single one of them has exactly the same opinion on everything. Consensus does not breed creativity. Take a look at the personnel list of creatives on the HOME or Factory website. There’s dozens of them. What on earth do they do all day? I’ve met some of Manchester’s creatives and quite frankly most of them couldn’t create a 99 if they had an ice cream in one hand and a flake in the other. Back in January when I was having a moan to Joshi about this I said I was going to put my money where my mouth was and submit a proposal to Factory and let him know how I got on. I sent off my proposal - quite good I thought and at least worthy of some consideration. Nothing. No reply. Not even an automated email acknowledging receipt. I wrote to them again a few weeks ago and sent it to every creative email address at Factory. One automated email reply. Nothing else. This is what we’re up against.
I had no experience of theatre growing up. The first time I went I was in my mid twenties. The second time I was in my mid thirties and right up until my early fifties I could count my theatre visits on the fingers of one hand, not including the thumb. Then I wrote something myself which was staged and produced at the Contact in 2012. Since then I’ve had five full professional productions and a few more public read throughs. I’ve been shortlisted by the BBC and shortlisted for the Northern Writers Award in 2022 for my book, Unlettered Men (and the publishing industry has the same problems with class as the rest of the creative sector) but even with the experience I now have I find the Manchester creative scene suffocatingly insular. Nothing is growing here.
People like me keep banging on the door of the creative industries. All we want is to be let in and be heard. The problem is that the gatekeepers on the other side think we’re trying to get in and nick their stuff. Until they acknowledge that nothing will change.
So sorry to hear about the fracture - will you be able to go to the party on the 6th? Not at all sure about Robin Red Breast and it was our first time at Aviva Studios and I’m also not at all convinced by the venue. Also it’s a pain (sorry) getting there - a long walk from Deansgate.
Yes it was a wonderful experience meeting John Bowen and stars of the time like John Castle, Anna Cropper, Andre van Gyseghem, though it was weird to see Ken Barlow amongst them. My school mate and I had to carry a coffin on - my first and only appearance on the stage.
Hi Don, sounds great — and fantastic to have your only stage appearance be at such an interesting venue. I've just started walking at snail-like speed in a moonboot so should make it to the party next Thursday! Will you be there too? Look forward to meeting you — and hopefully a few of the other commenters here — in person if so.
But context is also important. In 68 approximately 4% of the population went to university. Which meant that a great number of people were not able to achieve their potential. which meant that anger about the relative number of working class in the media rang true.
with the growth in access inevitably there is a creaming off for university ( a metric for middleclass status) from the population and so there will be fewer people calling themselves working class who have a career in the media.
Yes, really valuable piece of context about the percentage of people going to university — you're right, I should have included that. I can't remember where I read this, I suspect probably in A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie, the Dan Evans book (well worth a read if you're interested in contemporary ideas about class), but I've read somewhere that the problem nowadays in establishing numbers of working-class people in different sectors is that there are far more people identify as being working class than there actually are. It's seen as a marker of authenticity. So I'd maybe gently push back against the idea there are fewer people calling themselves working class who work in media than before...
growing up in the 60s i would have always called myself wc ( parents toolmaker/ mother worker in a glove factory) but with a university education ( free and with a grant!) working as a manager in the not for profit regular visits to theater (reviewer) then i would call myself middle class( unless the advert for a worker says that wc/criminal encouraged cos they are underrepresented) still in a piece for a local newspaper you put together a really interesting thought provoking article ; keep up the good work
An excellent account of Trevor's work. (who died recently sadly) .I only wish that younger playwrights were following in his foosteps but much of the new work I have seen recently in Manchester at small venues has been vacuous, purely personal with no wider analysis . Mike Poole's book on Trevor "Power Plays" is worth reading Some of his work can be found online: All Good Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evtj7d3cxBE ; Food for Ravens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9UCAOS2WLY ; Bill Brand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-JyGTq9Nw
This brings back some powerful memories. In my 6th form at a grammar school in Mansfield, going to Nottingham Playhouse (as we did, regularly, to see Shakespeare and Webster etc) and seeing Jonathan Pryce as Gethin. I'd never seen anything as visceral, as funny, as dangerous on the stage (not sure that I have since, TBH). I remember someone heckled Pryce during Gethin's act, and we weren't sure if this was a plant or a spontaneous reaction from the audience, but he took it in his stride. There were 3 young actors in that era at the Playhouse, Pryce, Rea and Tom Wilkinson, all of whom I've followed with great interest since - it was so obvious even then that they were major talents.
God, lucky you — seeing Pryce as Gethin in the flesh! I can imagine it must have been amazing. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Absolutely gorgeous writing, fantastic piece!
I studied English at MMU a decade ago and I was struck by the sheer number of lauded poets and playwrights who came from working class backgrounds (Shelagh Delaney (also the child of a bus inspector!), Andrea Dunbar, Alan Sillitoe, Edward Bond, Barry Hines, etc).
It was a different universe they occupied and I mourn the loss of political, angry voices in the mainstream cultural conversation.
Yes, absolutely. This is the thing, really: that pushing for more working-class writers isn't just about doing the right thing, it's something we all profit from. More voices from across the spectrum meaning more interesting and varied work! Everyone you cited above feel like evidence of this...who's doing it like Dunbar today? Hard to imagine a working class 15 year old today — or honestly, any 15 year old today — having their first play premiere at the Royal Court Theatre (If you're reading this and you know — please tell me! Possibly I'm just out of the loop and missing some great contemporary playwrights)
That was brilliant. Sacha Lord one day, Trevor Griffiths the next. Couldn't help thinking about Hope Mill Theatre in the context of this piece. They are the great hope for Manchester theatre. BTW, went to the Royal Ex last week and it was empty. Time for another article?
Thanks Peter! Interesting point about the Royal Exchange — one to look into once I'm better (I'm recovering from a broken foot so reporting is a little limited at the moment).
The current season feels unadvenrurous. I saw Sweat. It's had reasonable reviews, but frankly I found it boring. Don't think I've ever thought that about a REx production before
Agreed, I saw Sweat last week and I'm sorry to say it was a bit crap. Not a great production but also just not a brilliant play, I'm quite amazed it won the Pulitzer. I have the season ticket this year and thought the first play (Shed: exploded view) was by far the best of the three I've seen.
What a fantastic piece. I'm off to watch The Comedians and try and track down that play about Tom Mann. Thank you.
Hey Cath! Thanks for this kind feedback. The Tom Mann play is called 'Such Impossibilities' and unfortunately was never shown. The BBC commissioned it as part of their series 'The Edwardians' and then declined to shoot it on the grounds of cost. You can read it though - it's in the Faber book 'Collected Plays for Television: Trevor Griffiths'.
Really good Saturday read Sophie - Trevor Griffiths' work deserves to be more widely known and, although I was very sad to read about his death a couple of months ago, the obituaries do seem to have sparked a new interest. Amazing now to think that Bill Brand, with Jack Shepherd, was given such a prime spot on ITV in the 70s! Interesting point about the "class ceiling" which applies to other areas of work too.
Thanks for this Kath, couldn't agree more re: Griffiths work needing to be more widely known. Bill Brand is great but as you say, impossible to imagine something as subtle and slow-paced as it on primetime national TV these days.
Hope you recover soon Sophie.
Thanks Kath! It's been a really slow one but think I'm getting there now.
This was such a fascinating piece. A brilliant combination of the local (I recognise some of the places you mention) and the sort of socio-cultural/historical that I only feel I pick up by happenstance (I moved to Manchester from the US). You can still see, a bit, the impact of echoes of this on the city. Thanks for helping me know the place I live a bit better.
Hey Jennie, I was concerned this might not resonate with someone who was newer to Manchester, so this was really nice to read! Thanks for this lovely comment.
This is such an interesting article Sophie . It draws us back to a past cultural life we had If we were alive then ,and I was.
It's all too easy these days to exist in a 'now' bubble and yes I know life is very difficult for many today, too difficult to look back ,just getting on with living.
We are ,however, poorer beings If we neglect the amazing culture that was around then along with all the negative aspects . Your story Sophie helps us to see and appreciate that.
Thanks for reading and for these v kind words!
Reminds me of the time I was a schoolboy extra (having received the call at MGS) at the Stables in 1969. It was an excellent initiative by Sidney Bernstein that gave opportunities to playwrights like John Bowen who’s play ‘The Disorderly Women’ - an update of Euripides ‘The Bacchae’ - featured an amazing array of actors including bizarrely Bill Roache (and me!).
Coincidentally John Bowen’s ‘Robin Red Breast’ is itself currently getting an update at Aviva Studios - virtually on the same site.
Wow, this is great — what it was like being an extra? Coolest after-school job ever. Yep, I didn't want to get too granular in the piece but while there was a business case for creating the Stables (they fended off a bid from a rival TV company for a new contract and had to prove that they were investing in the local community) there was also an artistic motivation. Namely, that Sidney Bernstein had apparently always dreamt of starting a theatre in Manchester. I've been dying to see Robin Red Breast, but everything's a bit tricky atm because I'm recovering from a Jones fracture and walking is challenging — is it good?
This is a great piece, Sophie. It’s great to see the Mill challenging some of the cultural shibboleths that others like to leave well alone and I’m hoping this will continue. It comes as no surprise at all that the arts are continuing in their failure to attract working class writers like Trevor and despite the ACE report ‘New Audiences’ (1998-2003) that pointed out the same thing and the countless reports since it doesn’t look like anything will change any time soon. If this kind of writing and commentary keeps up from the Mill, maybe some of Manchester’s cultural cosa nostra will start to pay attention and things will begin to change.
Hi Robert, thanks for this very generous response to my piece. Depressing to hear that the ACE report highlighted exactly the same thing — what do you think the solution/s is/are? For me, reading about the 70s, it feels like there was a lot of great context (not necessarily well-considered government policy, but factors that happened to be in place) that allowed people to make creative work alongside their job or AS their job — lower rents, decent welfare state, in the case of Griffiths specifically, teaching not being such an all-consuming job as it is these days. Not to be a knee-jerk pessimist, but I'd be surprised if Griffiths was able to make it today (especially if he was writing the same kinds of work, largely with a historical political focus) or at least reach the same numbers of people.
I think you’re absolutely right that Trevor wouldn’t be given the time of day today. I said as much about Shelagh Delaney and others in a comment a few months back on Joshi’s piece on Dave Moutrey and the colonisation of the arts by the middle classes. Just to expand a bit on my comment about the New Audiences of the late 90s: in the past few years the University of Warwick, ACE (again) the Labour Party, Equity and even the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation have all come to the same conclusion - the arts are just nowhere near as diverse as they like to think they are or they pretend to be and that is as true in Manchester as it is anywhere else.
How to fix it is fairly simple and surprisingly easy. The real problem is the will to fix it which doesn’t appear to exist anywhere. My own opinion is that the creative industries hate the working classes. They treat working class lives in purely Hobbesian terms - solitary, brutish and short. Here’s some suggestions off the top of my head - and I’m keeping this strictly local because that’s where much of my own experience as a writer is.
Encourage new writing. This should really go without saying. The Bruntwood Prize at the RX is meant to be open to all and theoretically it is. Look on their website and the last four winners are experienced writers who have had some form of professional training or previous theatre experience. This is fine as it goes. You don’t study in the creative industries only to find yourself locked out of them, but there is a distinct lack of new talent being scouted. Go out and look for it. Look to schools and community arts places. Above all, listen. Every single one of us has a story worth telling. People don’t approach the big places like HOME, Factory and RX because they think they’re not good enough. They are. A few years ago when I was staging one of my own plays I wrote to HOME to enquire about rehearsal space and theatre hire. It was just an enquiry, that’s all. I got a rather snotty reply telling me they only work with their own chosen partners so there was no point me even asking. They didn’t say how I could become one of their chosen partners. I expect its some kind of secret nod or handshake or someone who knows someone. Maybe its the same way that Sacha Lord gets his ACE application waved through while the rest of us uncultured slobs have to get in line and do all kinds of acrobatics. Funding is not actually the problem here. ACE have buckets of money and a lot of it left over at the end of the financial year. The problem is who gets access to it.
Drop the working class act. Everybody. The BBC won’t even use the phrase anymore. They use the phrase ‘disadvantaged socio-economic background’ which is utterly meaningless. The term working class is like dust in their mouths. I’ve been told by people in the arts that they envy me my own back ground because it’s ‘genuine’. Why? So is theirs, so is everybody’s. Also, your background is the easiest thing to lie about and I know people who have or massively downplayed their own background so they can be accepted. The arts should not be a race to the social bottom. Conversely, working class people will only be attracted to the arts when the middle classes get their foot off their neck and stop claiming it for their own. Sick to the back teeth of people claiming their grandad was working class or scouring their family album for pictures of some faded antecedent going to work in a shawl because they think it give them some kind of special kudos. Pack it in. Did *they* go down a mine or fight in a war? Then I’ll listen to their stories. Otherwise, I don’t care. Besides, most of the people I know are working class and a lot of them are arseholes. Can we please start judging people on the quality off what they produce, not what they say their background is or what their fashionable opinion might be this week.
Rehearsal space: give it for free. If places like those listed above are getting public funding they should be putting something back. Ask anyone who has tried staging a production and one of the biggest expenses is rehearsal space and theatre hire. There is a lot of space in HOME and Factory that just isn’t used a lot of the time. Give it for free for people to rehearse stuff that isn’t necessarily on at those venues. The RX has in the past given up its space for free to political activist theatre that benefits absolutely nobody so I know it can be done
I know what I’m about to say is sacrilege around here, but hear me out. For the love of God, Manchester. Please. I am begging you.Stop acting like the Hacienda, Factory and Tony Wilson is the be all and end all of all artistic creativity in this city. It isn’t now and it wasn’t then. Of all the people reading this site I doubt there are more than a half a dozen who ever went there. Stop venerating it like it’s Chartres cathedral or something. It was a crap night club which bred disproportionate levels of violence, including sexual violence and crime the city still feels today. It’s nothing to be proud of. Manchester’s never-ending supply of chroniclers should write about the hundreds if not thousands of lives that violence has affected or just shut it. It’s cultural impact globally is negligible to the point of non existence. Be honest about it or get over yourselves. There should be a by-law passed in Manchester where anybody who starts a sentence with ‘Back in the day, in the Hacienda…’ should be hoofed right out the door. It’s a cultural crutch for men of a certain age and it should be kicked away. If we must look back for inspiration - and we should always be looking over our shoulder - then lets look back to Trevor and Shelagh and Anthony Burgess and Dame Hilary and others.
Next. Pay your performers. This might sound like basic stuff, but one of the main reasons the arts are not attractive to working classes is because quite frankly, they’re too smart to work for free and the industry its horribly exploitative. This breeds a something for nothing mentality which is taken as the norm. Another true story: when Maxine Peake staged her play ‘Queens of the Coal Age’ a few years back at the RX a call went out for a ‘community ensemble’ who were background players, on stage, being asked to rehearse several hours a week and be on stage for all performances working for free. I wrote to them and complained about this saying it was basically exploitation. A play about the exploitation of workers during the miners strike and its aftermath actually exploiting workers in a play written by someone who sets themselves up as some kind of working class, socialist scion was the absolute height of hypocrisy. This kind of exploitation is the industry norm. If Manchester want to show how ‘we do things differently here’ then start paying your performers. The fact is we don’t do things differently here. We do things just as shabbily and poorly as everywhere else.
As far as the creatives themselves are concerned then my advice would be to step out of your little circles and start being a little bit different. Nobody will do that because they are scared of losing friends and, ultimately, influence. I used the phrase ‘cultural cosa nostra’ quite deliberately earlier. There are maybe a hundred people running the creative scene in Manchester and every single one of them has exactly the same opinion on everything. Consensus does not breed creativity. Take a look at the personnel list of creatives on the HOME or Factory website. There’s dozens of them. What on earth do they do all day? I’ve met some of Manchester’s creatives and quite frankly most of them couldn’t create a 99 if they had an ice cream in one hand and a flake in the other. Back in January when I was having a moan to Joshi about this I said I was going to put my money where my mouth was and submit a proposal to Factory and let him know how I got on. I sent off my proposal - quite good I thought and at least worthy of some consideration. Nothing. No reply. Not even an automated email acknowledging receipt. I wrote to them again a few weeks ago and sent it to every creative email address at Factory. One automated email reply. Nothing else. This is what we’re up against.
I had no experience of theatre growing up. The first time I went I was in my mid twenties. The second time I was in my mid thirties and right up until my early fifties I could count my theatre visits on the fingers of one hand, not including the thumb. Then I wrote something myself which was staged and produced at the Contact in 2012. Since then I’ve had five full professional productions and a few more public read throughs. I’ve been shortlisted by the BBC and shortlisted for the Northern Writers Award in 2022 for my book, Unlettered Men (and the publishing industry has the same problems with class as the rest of the creative sector) but even with the experience I now have I find the Manchester creative scene suffocatingly insular. Nothing is growing here.
People like me keep banging on the door of the creative industries. All we want is to be let in and be heard. The problem is that the gatekeepers on the other side think we’re trying to get in and nick their stuff. Until they acknowledge that nothing will change.
Incredible comment and insights into how things work when you want to put on new theatre here. Can I get your email address please?
(Or if you'd rather not drop it on a public forum, can you please email me so I have it? I'm at sophie@manchestermill.co.uk)
Hi Sophie
So sorry to hear about the fracture - will you be able to go to the party on the 6th? Not at all sure about Robin Red Breast and it was our first time at Aviva Studios and I’m also not at all convinced by the venue. Also it’s a pain (sorry) getting there - a long walk from Deansgate.
Yes it was a wonderful experience meeting John Bowen and stars of the time like John Castle, Anna Cropper, Andre van Gyseghem, though it was weird to see Ken Barlow amongst them. My school mate and I had to carry a coffin on - my first and only appearance on the stage.
Get well soon.
Hi Don, sounds great — and fantastic to have your only stage appearance be at such an interesting venue. I've just started walking at snail-like speed in a moonboot so should make it to the party next Thursday! Will you be there too? Look forward to meeting you — and hopefully a few of the other commenters here — in person if so.
really good piece.
But context is also important. In 68 approximately 4% of the population went to university. Which meant that a great number of people were not able to achieve their potential. which meant that anger about the relative number of working class in the media rang true.
with the growth in access inevitably there is a creaming off for university ( a metric for middleclass status) from the population and so there will be fewer people calling themselves working class who have a career in the media.
Yes, really valuable piece of context about the percentage of people going to university — you're right, I should have included that. I can't remember where I read this, I suspect probably in A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie, the Dan Evans book (well worth a read if you're interested in contemporary ideas about class), but I've read somewhere that the problem nowadays in establishing numbers of working-class people in different sectors is that there are far more people identify as being working class than there actually are. It's seen as a marker of authenticity. So I'd maybe gently push back against the idea there are fewer people calling themselves working class who work in media than before...
growing up in the 60s i would have always called myself wc ( parents toolmaker/ mother worker in a glove factory) but with a university education ( free and with a grant!) working as a manager in the not for profit regular visits to theater (reviewer) then i would call myself middle class( unless the advert for a worker says that wc/criminal encouraged cos they are underrepresented) still in a piece for a local newspaper you put together a really interesting thought provoking article ; keep up the good work
An excellent account of Trevor's work. (who died recently sadly) .I only wish that younger playwrights were following in his foosteps but much of the new work I have seen recently in Manchester at small venues has been vacuous, purely personal with no wider analysis . Mike Poole's book on Trevor "Power Plays" is worth reading Some of his work can be found online: All Good Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evtj7d3cxBE ; Food for Ravens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9UCAOS2WLY ; Bill Brand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-JyGTq9Nw