Monday, May 28, 2007

Welcome Home Jacko

Well, I went up to nottingham to see Mustapha Matura's play called "Welcome Home Jacko" and I think i totally missed the point.

there were 4 characters - all young rastafarian boys who hang out at a youth centre. Their youth worker person, a new woman who wants to work with them and Jacko who is an older memebr of the youth group who has just come out of a 5 year strech in prison for rape.

The whole thing is like, they talk about jail and what happened to Jacko and then history kinda repeats itself. It's an hour long, so not a lot of time for things to develop at a more moderate pace, but it was kinda predictable.

The one thing that did help though, was listining to Matura in the bar before hand. I was on a different table and he was talking to other people from Eclipse Theatre. and he said that "the young ones should remove the older writers and do something new" and that really stung home.
It's difficult enough for a young writer who wants to do something different to the norm. theatres these days only take notice of what is pretty much the same as what is in fashion at that precise moment. What seems to be "in" now(ish) is weird plays about relationships and sex tourism in jamaca... so here's the pitch, I'm writing a play about a boy made out of stars and a cave...

2 comments:

Lucy Ann Wade said...

So was the playwright who wrote 'Welcome Home Jacko' young? I mean, if young playwrights are writing what you thought was a wanky play about rastas in jail, then there's no hope! I'd just like there to be a few (just a couple, I'm not greedy) theatres that put on experimental plays, like the Royal Court used to do before it got all commercial. Perhaps the change in funding has meant that these places have to put on crap plays so that they can guarentee an audience.

Sabrina Mei-Li Smith said...

Mustapha was old. He had grey hair and everything! "Welcome Home Jacko" is set in 1979, so contemporary if you discount anyobody under 26!