Theatre Unleashed

“Theatre Uncut is a massive project that’s happening, it’s been spearheaded in London by Reclaim Theatre and Meeting Point Productions at the Southwark Playhouse.” Says Alexandra Cory, the producer of Theatre Uncut: Bedlam, one of only four Theatre Uncut events taking place in Scotland.

Taking place on March the 19th, also known as Debt Day, Theatre Uncut is a full day of theatre, debate, music and comedy, and comedy that features 7 new plays from 7 of the UK's most prolific playwrights, including Mark Ravenhill, Lucy Kirkwood and Simon Stephens.

Theatre Uncut: Bedlam will begin at 12pm, and will include live music, comedy debate and a cake sale, with tickets to each of the plays costing just £1 each. All proceeds from the box office and cake sale will go to the Child Poverty Action group, the official charity of Theatre Uncut. Created by Hannah Price, this nation-wide event is a co-production between Reclaim Theatre and Meeting Point Productions, as a response to the cuts announced by the coalition government.

As Price puts it: “Theatre Uncut is a theatrical response to the cuts outlined by the coalition in October. These cuts are the turning point of a generation, undermining the welfare state, state higher education and the arts in one fell swoop. By creating a nationwide event spearheaded in London we hope to create a theatrical uprising and play our part in the anti-cuts movement that is already underway. We are delighted to have such fantastic writers and directors on board to help us achieve something extraordinary.”

The aforementioned and quite frankly, ominous cuts are something that have already caused a number of high profile and violent protests, such as the student protests in London, but as Theatre Uncut is an event that is mostly comprised of theatre, is it all just about the arts cuts? “It’s not just about the arts cuts or whatever,” says Cory firmly. “It’s about all of them, because a lot of the plays are quite allegorical, you can read whatever you want into them.....it presents the effects of them, the cuts are going to affect people in a bad way.”

This may sound like simple fear mongering, but the message of Theatre Uncut is one of education and debate. But if some people are upset by the idea of theatre, what about the idea of politics? The two subjects seem, at first, to be unlikely bedfellows. This is something that Cory disagrees about. “The people that would normally find politics exclusive don’t normally find theatre exclusive and vice versa, so the merging of these two, let’s call them cliques, so the merging of these two cliques should help sort of break down the walls.”

While the Bedlam is a well-known theatre venue in the city centre, there will be some who will be put off by the very presence of theatre, and the use of drama as a method of protest. This is one challenge however, that Cory seems unfazed by. Cory continues: “I don’t think people can come out and say that going to see the theatre to see something like this is exclusive because art mirrors the society that it’s in, so when there’s something like this going on, its reflecting the society that we’re in....I don’t think you can have this type of expression in another place other than the theatre, I don’t think it’s right to be seen as exclusive because the theatre is the people’s way of expression, and this is something that is for them, as much as it is for the theatre and for the arts.” If Theatre Uncut’s main objective is to be informative, then Cory’s addition to the Theatre Uncut event is one of power, truth and knowledge, as she sums up: “Come in with an open mind," says Cory, "...don’t think that we’re preaching to you, or that anything that’s going on, or the whole Theatre Uncut project is preachy…the whole event is to promote thought and debate on these issues.”

Theatre Uncut: Bedlam is on at the Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, and begins at 12pm on Saturday, the 19th of March. Tickets cost £1 per play. Visit www.bedlamtheatre.co.uk for more details.