Handbagged E-Book

Moira Buffini

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Modern Plays
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 43

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

For over a decade, Margaret Thatcher met the Queen for a weekly audience. With all her previous Prime Ministers the Queen enjoyed a fairly informal relationship, but with Mrs Thatcher, things were different. Moira Buffini's short play, Handbagged, speculates on the relationship between these two very powerful and private women. This is the one-act version of the play premiered as part of the Women, Power & Politics season at the Tricycle Theatre in 2010. It was later developed into a full-length version, which premiered at the Tricycle Theatre in 2013.

Leseprobe

Moira Buffini

HANDBAGGED

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction by Indhu Rubasingham

Original Production

Characters

HandbaggedMoira Buffini

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Indhu Rubasingham

Women, Power and Politics is a season of nine exciting new plays presented in two parts, Then and Now. Creating it has been an important journey where theatre is reflecting, amongst other things, the immediate politics of today. This journey started a year ago.

In May 2009 the Tricycle had just opened The Great Game: Afghanistan. I co-directed it with Nick Kent, who produced the project at the Tricycle in North London, where he is the Artistic Director. It was a day-long event featuring a series of twelve new plays looking at Afghan history from the first Anglo-Afghan War up to the present day. It was proving to be a huge success and a very special production. Two days after the press ‘day’, whilst I was lying in a darkened room recovering from this enormous endeavour, Nick called me to say that he had a great idea he wanted to discuss. I was amazed by his unstoppable energy. He had just read an article in The Times where there was a picture of David Cameron presiding over the then Shadow Cabinet, which consisted entirely of (white) men. The article was discussing where the women were in the Tory Party. Inspired by this, Nick offered me the opportunity to direct and produce a project looking at and titled Women, Power and Politics on a similar template to The Great Game.

It was a unique opportunity to conceive and produce a project on this scale. Where do you start? To begin with I thought about international politics, working with writers from all over the world. However, as I started to research, I soon realised that given it was such a broad subject, if I went too wide I would only be able to skim the surface. I was going to have to narrow it down – and soon. But the statistics internationally were fascinating and the issues complex. How do you define politics and power? The canvas felt very, very big and, at times, daunting. It is, moreover, a subject which raises such passion in people. Opinions, both varied and extreme, were offered on what material the plays should contain. Unlike The Great Game, where the majority of people in this country were fairly unaware of the situation in Afghanistan, everyone is aware of this subject and holds a fervent opinion on it: whether it is Margaret Thatcher or the expenses scandal surrounding Jacqui Smith and her husband. It was also interesting how different generations had very different perspectives and agendas.

The fog slowly lifted and, after much discussion with my team (more about them soon), I decided that the theatre was going to be specific to women, power and politics in Great Britain; while the Tricycle’s cinema would look at women in politics internationally; and its gallery would offer a celebration of women in Great Britain. It was also important to me that the programme would create debate and discussion amongst the audience and be of the highest artistic quality. Theatre is a fantastic medium for emotional engagement, and it is something we experience as a collective; I wanted the event to demonstrate the complexity of issues that should concern and engage everybody. In the theatre, we are not there to define answers but to provoke questions.

At the time of writing, we have just had a General Election. Women make up 22% of Parliament. There are only four women in the new Cabinet which works out at less than 20% and far less than most other Western democracies. Spain, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Greece, the USA and Belgium are just a few of the countries that have a much higher percentage of women in Government and in the Cabinet. Yet women make up 52% of the population of the UK. During the election campaign of 2010, it was the wives of the party leaders who had far more media coverage than any female politician or candidate. This new era of British politics is especially worrying as there seems to be little or no interest or concern about the lack of representation. This is ironic considering the fanfare surrounding ‘Blair’s Babes’ in 1997. Why is this happening and what are the obstacles that are preventing women from entering or gaining power within the political system in this country? Is it the structure of government? The media? Society? Or is it women themselves?

I created a small team who would meet regularly to bounce ideas and discuss the project. This included Zoe Ingenhaag, Ruth Needham, Holly Conneely and Rachel Taylor. This team sometimes expanded to engage more voices, but on the whole this was the core group. Different generations of women discussing and tussling over this material was thrilling and thought-provoking. One example will serve for many: it became apparent that the two younger ones had never heard of Greenham Common and were unaware of such an enormous political event in the 1980s. This was suprising and led us to asking: why had this event been lost to a younger generation, and what is its legacy?