Sunday, June 03, 2012
The Art of Writing No. 48
The Inspector is a play about the conflict between a dynamic artistic culture and
that form of philistinism perpetrated upon the citizens of a country by the social engineering of
governmental policies based upon skills, league tables, labour fodder and bottom
line accounting. Although it is
yet to be performed on stage it has had a number of compliments from upcoming
UK West End producers/directors. The problem is that they do not buy into a
theatrical construction which is based upon tightly choreographed mirroring
between the two time periods. The current preference is for more organic,
sprawling artefacts rather than, say, a Borges-like cultivated labyrinth which
passes back and forth between 1960s and twenty first century England.
The play balances the
different ideological viewpoints through two characters who appear both as
young students and later as a teacher and an inspector. Does a teacher proof
curriculum, tightly controlled, produce a more humane and economically viable
society than that of a looser edifice where art flourishes next to the 3 Rs, IT
and continuous testing? How can we create a caring culture which is vibrant in
its thinking and whose citizens are naturally critical of its politicians’
limited understanding of what enriches the spirit? Curiously I watched a news
clip the other day which focused on how technological engineering had spurted
when think tanks in industry included artists but how, when recession hits it
is the artistic input which is junked first.
The play contains
violence, sex and humour and in readings appears to be verbally seductive and
visually gripping as well as intellectually satisfying.
For me, the difference
between playwriting and other fictions is that everything is pared down to
sound and image. Like one great Zen aphorism, all of life is contained in the
space the audience sees before them and their suspension of disbelief is harder
to inculcate in this public arena than in the private fantasy world of personal
space where there are fewer intrusions from strangers in a strange setting and
where the imagination delivers visuals at will and according to biographic
need.
Having staged a number
of my plays in small theatre groups over the years I learned a great deal about
dialogue, about modulating it through adopting different voices and about
exactly how much scaffolding is needed to keep the reader aware of who is
speaking without interfering with its flow. Given that Azimuth my recently
published trilogy contains so much dialogue and is not Borges-like, being more
organic and sprawling then theatre people might find it more acceptable and buy
into it! Maybe even make a play from it.
The Inspection by Jack
Sanger www.chronometerpublications.me
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