Dance of Redemption

I am currently directing some A’ Level Theatre Studies students in a production of ‘Our Country’s Good’ by Timberlake Wertenbaker. The play, which is about the first convicts to be transported to Australia in the 1700’s, has become something of a modern classic since it was first staged at The Royal Court Theatre in 1988. The story tells how the newly appointed Governor of the penal colony appoints one of his officers to direct the convicts in George Farquhar’s fashionable comedy ‘The Recruiting Officer.’ He believes this will help to rehabilitate them during their sentence. His social experiment is supported by the officer who has been holding the auditions: ‘In my own small way, in just a few hours, I have seen something change. I asked some of the convict women to read me some lines, these women who behave no better than animals. And it seemed to me, as one or two-I’m not saying all of them, not at all-but one or two, saying those well-balanced lines of Mr. Farquhar, they seemed to acquire a dignity, they seemed-they seemed to lose some of their corruption.’ By the end of ‘Our Country’s Good,’ despite the opposition of many of the officers, the prisoners rehearsing the play have become transformed- both individually and as a community. One of the convicts, a shy and fragile soul, gives us some insight into how acting has stretched and challenged her in such a beneficial way. As she rehearses her central role in the comedy, she says to her friend Dabby: ‘How can I play Silvia? She’s brave and strong. She couldn’t have done what I’ve done.’ Dabby tries to reassure her: ‘You can pretend you’re her.’ But Mary will have none of it: ‘No I have to be her…Because that’s acting.’ Another convict declares toward the end, ‘When I speak Kite’s lines, I don’t hate anymore.’ Lest we dismiss Wertenbaker’s play as liberal propaganda, she includes some letters at the front of the Methuen addition of the play, from contemporary prisoners. Each writes movingly of the impact of doing drama while serving their sentence. One such man puts it very well. ‘Prison is about failure normally, and how we are reminded of it every day. Drama and self-expression in general, is a refuge and one of the only real weapons against the hopelessness of these places.’

As a drama teacher I frequently see the impact it has on people’s lives in many tangible ways- albeit in a less highly charged environment. I was directing one of the students in the role of the aggressive, street-wise convict Liz Morden this week. Jessamy is a nice middle-class girl who’s rather shy and she was clearly feeling a bit self-concious playing the part. We began to explore the body language of this high-status criminal. I encouraged Jessamy to hold eye-contact with the other performers, look them up and down in a slow, measured way, and to move very deliberately into their personal space. The transformation was instantaneous and the other students cackled with glee at the ‘new’ Jessamy before them. Jessamy found playing this rather dangerous convict strangely liberating. Perhaps it helped her express her shadow side which she’d been conditioned to keep in check over the years. She seemed to relish being powerful, dangerous, even sexy for once, rather than the demure goodie-goodie persona Jessamy is inclined to project in class.

An even more positive example of the therapeutic properties of drama was demonstrated last week, as I was directing the lower sixth in their AS production of the Greek Tragedy, ‘The Trojan Women’. The play explores the desperate struggle of the captured Trojans to make sense of their horrific fate as prisoners of war. They cry out to the gods to help them but to no avail. It is poignant at this time of the Israeli attack on Gaza. A very obvious challenge for these post-modern/secularized students, is how to connect with the sacred rituals of the ancient Trojans, without resorting to theatrical clichés. I did the usual trick of playing some moody music and got the students to work in pairs, mirroring each other’s movements until they began to lose themselves in the simple physical communion established between them. I then asked them to form a circle and asked the student playing the prophetess Cassandra to lead the rest of the group in a simple sequence of movements, in response to a sublime track from Wellspring's CD ‘Ancient Paths’. The student did this very sensitively before coming to a place of intense stillness and silence. I then encouraged them to speak out words of praise for Troy and the gods and the simple pleasures of their every day existence as a Trojan (assuming that this was before the Greeks had invaded their land.) The impact was very moving, and afterwards one of the students said how the things the characters had given praise for were still utterly relevant today. She had, perhaps for the first time in her life, discovered the universal impulse to worship . As we develop such spontaneous rituals over the coming rehearsal period, I believe the students will awaken their dormant spirituality in a very exciting way. Sadly there is very little other forum for this, in our highly secularized school.

All of which brings me to the title of this blog and the point I am trying to make. On Friday we took our two daughters to see the musical ‘Billy Elliot’ in London. As you probably know the story is about a twelve year old working-class lad from a mining community in county Durham, who discovers a passion for ballet- much to the horror of his bigoted Dad and older brother. On the morning that he has secretly arranged to audition for the Royal Ballet School, they find out and stop him attending. Billy’s distress at seeing his dreams torn to shreds is juxtaposed with the menacing advance of the riot-police toward an imaginary picket line of striking miners. With their truncheons beating wildly against their fibreglass shields, they move as one man towards the audience- leaving Billy sandwiched between. (see picture). The oppression of the mining community, is being equated with the father’s tyranny over his son’s ‘unacceptable’ quest for self-expression.

Later in the musical, Billy is alone in the local community hall late on Christmas eve. He has told his best friend that he has ‘packed-in the ballet.’ As he sits brooding about missed opportunities, Billy notices a cassette recorder in the middle of the hall and shoves in his tape of Swan-Lake. Inevitably his love for dance is rekindled, and he begins to move gracefully around the hall. The moment evolves into a sort of dream sequence, in which a grown up version of himself enters the space and leads him in a glorious pas de deux which culminates in the young Billy flying up high towards the lighting rig in an image of freedom and transcendence. This musical adaptation of the film is very clever in the way that it employs a whole range of dance routines as a metaphor for both personal and collective freedom and redemption. We see great burly miners, squads of riot-police, even Billy’s decrepit grandmother, telling their stories through hilariously incongruous choreography. At the curtain call there is an extra finale in which the whole cast including Billy’s Dad and brother, prance around in frilly tutus with utter glee and abandonment. The production leaves us with the profound truth, that beyond the socially conditioned roles we adopt-roles which so often lead to personal constriction and social conflict, there is a universal huger to come together and express who we really are. That is perhaps what true worship is partly about and this wonderful finale, which the performers clearly adore, provided the audience with a glimpse of Heaven. Authentic spirituality and uninhibited artistic expression are both powerful means to help individuals and communities leave the masquerade of social posturing, and discover 'the glorious liberty of the children of God.'

As I continue to develop the creative and performing arts within my local Anglican congregation and my school, I shall look and pray for more of the same!

For more information about the Christian Arts Ministry I lead at St. John's Broadbridge Heath, go to http://www.thespaceproject.org/