The Deal
This work follows on from Meeting Ground's production of the epic musical TRANSPLANT written by Jeremy Seabrook and Michael O'Neill with music by Douglas Finch.
This show produced in 2001 was about globalisation and told the stories of a victim of a school shoot out in the 'rich' world requiring organ replacement and the young woman in the 'poor' world who was constrained through economic circumstance to be a donor.
In the last 40 years economics and the human values which derive from it have begun to dominate political and social life in new ways. As this has happened humankind has changed from a predominantly food-growing to a city-dwelling species. These transformations of the human character and our relationship to the land are the source of the stories which this project will explore.
The Deal is at an early stage in its development. Az has approached the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre as a potential partner.
Focus
The focus of this project is the way economic thinking shapes our lives, the way it forms our image of the human being and the way it defines our motivations. At the same time it is an investigation of theatre's capacity to express and articulate the processes, stories and characters involved in the growth of the influence of economics.
The work will entail a programme of creative encounters, workshops, presentations and performances. We will work with theatre artists and communities to collect stories and images, to explore forms of expression and to develop techniques. We will work collaboratively and commission writers, composers and other artists. All the work will be documented with video, photography and written reports.
Partnership
Az Theatre is looking for international partners to advance the project. We expect the project to develop through a number of stages. The first step is to establish a partnership with theatre artists in China. We have made an initial approach to the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre. We talked with members of this company at the Trabzon International Theatre Festival in Turkey in May 2007. We want to conduct some initial research with this company. This will involve our Director visiting the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre.
After this initial research we may approach other companies in other countries and extend the project. We will also find financial partners to ensure the future stability of the project. We imagine that the project will last for about three years
Development of our theme
According to statistical evidence the end of the last millennium marked the end of the era when the overwhelming majority of the human race lived by growing food and herding animals. Thus it brought to a close the seven or eight millennia of human history that began with the invention of agriculture in the Stone Age. From 2000 the majority of humanity lived and worked in an urban rather than a rural circumstance
Is it possible for theatre to encompass the dimensions of this story of human transformation?
These changes being undergone by the human species are to some extent a consequence of the industrial revolution which started in England in the late eighteenth century which precipitated the growth of the first global empire. They are due to technology and to the accompanying development of the science of economics. This science has had a profound influence on all political and social institutions and structures. Through the dominance of credit and money and the way political structures reflect and shape our identities the image of the human has been radically transformed.
Is theatre capable of expressing the new identities and the new sense of the human character that are emerging?
Our sense of our individuality and our relationship to forms of collectivity are changing. As we have become detached from a settled landscape we have also become detached from each other. All collective organisations such as the family, religion, the political party, the nation state, the corporation, are in a process of transformation.
In different ways and in different cultural settings similar processes are taking place all over the world as the new internationalised market system based on information technology and 'economic' thinking predominates. This globalisation is bringing into play new images of the human species with new responsibilities.
Are different forms of expression in theatre needed to express this new reality?
Background
The creators of Az Theatre first addressed the question of globalisation on a project called TRANPLANT. This culminated in a major music theatre presentation in 2001. Since then the company has developed a project called WAR STORIES, an international exploration of war and theatre. This work is supported by the Arts Council England, the European Cultural Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (visit www.warstoriestheatre.org). Jonathan Chadwick, Az Theatre director has undertaken a study of economics as a post-graduate at London University's Birkbeck College and a study of the Chinese language at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies.