Theatre shouldn’t be challenged for a lack of plays about the EU referendum – its job is not to be the case for alternatives, but to be the alternative itself, argues Matt Trueman.
Where were all the plays about Brexit? So wondered Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish's question the day after the EU referendum. "I must have missed that," he tweeted. "What a squandered opportunity by the theatre establishment to take a proactive role?"
This is, I think, to fundamentally misunderstand the function of theatre. A play is not a public information broadcast; still less a campaigning tool. For a play to have overturned the result, it would need to have converted around 700,000 Leave voters to the other side. Now I'm no Cameron Mackintosh, but I can't see a piece about the merits of EU membership becoming the next War Horse... Keep reading on Whats On Stage
Where were all the plays about Brexit? So wondered Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish's question the day after the EU referendum. "I must have missed that," he tweeted. "What a squandered opportunity by the theatre establishment to take a proactive role?"
This is, I think, to fundamentally misunderstand the function of theatre. A play is not a public information broadcast; still less a campaigning tool. For a play to have overturned the result, it would need to have converted around 700,000 Leave voters to the other side. Now I'm no Cameron Mackintosh, but I can't see a piece about the merits of EU membership becoming the next War Horse... Keep reading on Whats On Stage