Red Ladder Theatre Company

Since my last blog the Red Grit show ‘Bittersweet Sunshine’ has been and gone – onstage on 21^st and 22^nd June. I was delighted with the final product – a great design by our new designer Kelly Jago and strong performances by the cast with direction by Duncan Marwick. The play ran at just an hour and took the audience on a journey that raised questions about how people migrate either as Brits abroad or like the character of Soloman, a young man from Sierra Leone with memory scars of being a child soldier. It is important that this annual Red Grit performance is very different from the Red Ladder touring product – so that Red Grit has a very definite aesthetic. The danger is that audiences might get confused by the wide range of theatre products that Red Ladder produces. For me, the fact that the Red Grit production gives a professional platform to new actors, a newly trained designer, trainee stage management and a local director is the success of our training programme. So what is the essential Red Ladder output? It’s a veritable smorgasbord!!

Meanwhile, my ‘Ugly’ preparations continue. Last Friday, Emma Adams, Jaydev Mistry and I had an all day meeting about the sound design – and this included a conference call with Sara Perks our set and costume designer. ‘Ugly’ presents many challenges and we are wrestling with how to make a touring show which fills one van and yet can immerse audiences into this crazy world of food memory prostitutes and gun wielding state troopers. The transitions from scene to scene are difficult to say the least – Emma uses the verb ‘morphs’ quite a lot in her scene descriptions. ’Morphing’ is not something easily achieved in a live theatre performance … so we shall see what we can come up with!!!

The most important thing we need to achieve through our performances of ‘Ugly’ is a real and useful discussion about what we will need to do to survive the future if we are going to avoid the hell that the play presents. In the December 09 edition of Turbulence  there is a fascinating article by the Swiss author p.m. entitled ‘It’s all about potatoes and computers’. In the article, p.m. argues that if we are to really offer an alternative to the present system in crisis then we have to look at structuring global society upon the concept of ‘the commons’ – based on the principle of the unconditional survival of all human beings on a decent basis. The key is for communities to downsize and the global society would be essentially structured upon two elements: access to land and access to knowledge. The present suicidal system of capitalism would be replaced by global re-ruralisation called micro-agro linking the urban experience with the rural so that cities become garden states with food production being the staple activity. An urban micro-centre would be a cluster comprising a food depot (about the size of a small supermarket), communal kitchen, dwellings for an average neighbourhood of 500 people and communal meeting spaces for educating and communicating across the community. Our modern day cities would shrink to the size of small towns (40 neighbourhoods) and there would be a worker migration to the rural areas to work on agro-centres.

The agro-centre would serve the micro-centre with the main food staples such as milk, vegetables, fruits, eggs and so on. Calculating on 1.84kg of foodstuff per person per day, this generates a transportation volume of 900kg per day, approximately seven tonnes a week. All this would be feasibly delivered in a small truck running on bio-gas. The heaviest produce would be delivered only seasonally in large quantities allowing for more energy efficient means of transportation such as trains and boats a few times a year. The urban experience will need to become more ruralised. Each neighbourhood will need to be linked to land where urban growing can supplement the agro-centre supplies. In modern Cuba 60% of the country’s food is grown locally – much of it in urban gardens and on roof-tops. We need to look at this model if as a species we are to survive and feed our growing populations. At the moment the affluent 20% of the world consume 80% of the world’s resources. This injustice is hastening the destruction of our planet  - it is also threatening our very survival – and yet alternatives to this system are described as ‘crackpot’ or even ‘dangerous’!

This week I am meeting with a group of like-minded activists in Hebden Bridge to discuss our own attempt to buy land and form a sustainable community. We want to start a micro-centre in Calderdale and the main aim will be to jump off the system and survive. As I explained in my blog on 7^th June – this is a real and practical attempt – and the more people like us join global networks through the internet – the more chance we can gradually make the present system obsolete.

If you want to add your views on this system change – then come and see ‘Ugly’ and be vocal in the post-show discussions! We are doing a special performance at Jackson’s Lane in London on October 12^th – this is our London showcase and is an opportunity for all our London contacts to see the piece. Please book this date in your diary if you are one of our London based supporters!