By
Mel Cooper
5 July 2016
Forget the
West End and regional theatre; forget the RSC and National. The
UK at the moment is offering the greatest show on earth on its TV news channels
and serious radio, 18 hours a day, developing with real style, gusto and
endless twists of plot. It is called the Brexit Play. It features major
and minor politicians (some of whom are becoming stars, and others who were
stars ) who look as if they are about to burn out. Some people, like Tim Farron (who runs
the Liberal Democrats —all eight of them that made it into Parliament in the
last election) is trying to start a contemporary play to compete, which I call:
Regrexit. If he succeeds, we will also see the annoyed 48% of the
country's voters (Remain!) trying to reverse the decision of the 52% (Leave!)
the EU.
I could
write an essay on just how bad it is for the arts, and for entertainment,
too, but
you can probably figure it out for yourself; the whole issue has become the world's arts and entertainment
itself at the moment.
Recently,
TV pundits were comparing Michael Gove to Macbeth, Mrs. Gove to Lady Macbeth
(without the laughs), and Boris Johnson to Duncan. Julius Caesar seems to be playing itself out on TV screens as well:
with some people appealing to the mobs to crown their Caesar, and others crying
to the Brexit voters: “You blocks, you stones, you worse-than-senseless things.
Knew you not Pompey?”
Mind you,
we are not entirely certain who this Pompey character is at the moment. It sure
ain’t Jeremy Corbyn (the Labour Party opposition leader), with his lean shanks
and slippered pantaloons, still at this writing refusing to leave the stage
though “Exit pursued by bear” has been in his script for days. He is also being
likened to King John, who provoked his nobles and eventually signed Magna Carta
against his will (are you listening, Jeremy?). Frankly, it's hard not to feel
that Shakespeare is still living at this hour and somehow foresaw it all.
We had John
of Gaunt of Richard II on TV today in
the person of Baron Heseltine
(the
Conservative who unseated Margaret Thatcher), pleading for this England,
“this royal throne of kings, this
sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden,
demi-Paradise, this fortress built by Nature for her self”;
and for its
prime and moral position in Europe. Daily, as if creating material for new
History Plays, or merely echoing them, we have betrayals, and we have evidence
of loyalties; we have great shifts of support for one would-be political
monarch after another from one moment to the next. And we may just have another
female Prime Minister soon, the redoubtable Theresa May (for now, the
Conservative Home Secretary), playing, according to her supporters, our very
own stable and sane Paulina of The
Winter’s Tale.
Of course,
the most memorable and powerful speech on behalf of remaining in the EU was
made at the 11th hour, and wonderfully, by the actress Sheila
Hancock. I do hope it surfaces on the Internet. At the moment, mingy and stingy
old ITV is blocking her speech for copyright reasons. Now if only she had said
her piece on the BBC! (Which, of course, is under threat from the
Conservatives, but that is another story from another place.)
At this
moment the beleagured UK is living through what the Chinese call “interesting
times”. No one knows what's going to
happen tomorrow. It's a political thriller; it's a political farce; it's also a
soap opera and high drama, all at once. Europe is clearly seriously pissed off
with the UK, and especially David Cameron, who swore over and over that he
could win this. “If you are not 100% certain you can risk it, David, do not do
it,” they advised. Years ago, Margaret Thatcher was pressurized into holding a
referendum by her Eurosceptics but never would; David Cameron believed he knew
better. He was told not to have a Referendum; he went ahead, leading the Remain
Campaign, and he did not win. And so his little Conservative Party squabble
cost him his job and his legacy— and is costing the whole of Europe dearly. We may end up
not only with the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, but also the withdrawal of
Scotland and Ireland from the UK.
(Shakespeare was no stranger to bad decisions. Poor Brutus thought
Cassius was right about how to solve the problem of preserving the Roman
republic! And look at the chaos that that provoked!)
These are
parlous and chaotic times; and this is (do not think I am exaggerating) the
worst Constitutional Crisis in a very long time; some people say since the time
of the Civil War and Cromwell. There is also the fear that David Cameron’s
ill-considered attempt to bring the UK equivalent of Tea Party Republicans to
heel has unleashed xenophobia of a very high order, and also the racism that is
escalating daily. Has he put our toes on the first step of the ladder of
Fascism? It sounds exaggerated; but people old enough to remember the 1930s are
telling me that this is exactly what it felt like when it all began; and that
Hitler sounded as plausible and not-so-very-racist as, let us say, Nigel
Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (England’s new Oswald
Moseley?). Mind you, Hitler had plans for genocide and territorial expansion. I
suspect that the problem with Farage and his fellow bigoted Brexiters is that
they have no plans at all! They just
don't like immigrants or the EU any more than Henry V liked the French
or the Yorkists liked the Lancastrians with whom they fought the Wars of the
Roses. Never mind that this is no reason to leave it but a reason to reform it;
never mind that you are encouraging a country to betray all its friends and
neighbours, remove its influence at a crucial time, and diminish its moral
standing in the world.
Don’t
believe the propaganda. The EU is democratic; the only laws we are
living under promulgated by the EU were all debated and voted for in their
Parliament where we have MEPs and agreed to adopt in our Parliament.
They are only asking for a fair share of “fees” to belong to their club, and
the reason the UK was the fifth-largest economy in the world (well, until last
week) was precisely because of the growth and development achieved during the
past 43 years as a partner of the EU. Basically, as with the crowds being
provoked in Julius Caesar, Brexit's
rationale was all a lot of demagoguery and downright lies. “Friends, Romans,
countrymen: we come to bury the EU, not to praise it!”
There is a
mythical £350 million we send to the EU every week that is actually more like
£128 million when you consider rebates and so forth. This is our fee for
belonging to the EU club; this is our tax. People who are complaining about
those who will not pay their fair share of taxes in the UK are also complaining
about Britain’s paying its fair share of tax to the EU and choosing to ignore
not only the quantifiable benefits but the unquantifiable ones. One example:
the UK has a huge lead in and great respect for its scientific research. For
every £4 we put into the EU budget, we actually get back £6.5 for projects that
also link us to, and are done in co-operation with, other EU countries. All
that is about to go. And, for the arts, experimental theatre groups subsidized
by the EU; exchanges of artists to work and exhibit their work within EU
countries; cross-cultural musical festivals and shows: all that and much, much
more is about to go, too.
But why
should I bore you with our little troubles when you have an even greater clown
to entertain you for months to come in the Presidential race? Perhaps sadly, we
have just had our own blonde clown with a comb-over (Boris Johnson) withdraw
from the race for Prime Minister. But never fear! He is very ambitious and a
talented entertainer. He loves a crowd. You can’t keep such people down. He
will probably reappear again in some other role very soon.
Unlike like
the Fool in King Lear, who ends up dying for telling the truth, and who
disappears halfway through the story.
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