State of the Nation?

We have received a number of enquiries about what exactly we mean by 'state of the nation', and in particular why we say your play should reflect 'being alive in Britain today' while we also say it can be set in any period. Isn't this a contradiction? No, it isn't.

Writers have always used historical material as a means of reflecting and commenting on the experiences of their own time. Some would say this distancing is even more effective in getting your point across than a contemporary setting, which runs the risk of quickly going out of date.

Here are some examples:
Euripides wrote 'The Trojan Women' to comment on the horrors of war in his own time, and in particular the policies of his government towards its enemies, but he set it in the distant Trojan war.

Shakepeare's 'Macbeth' is about kingship and power in his own day, but he set it in a vaguely mythical past.

Nearer to our own time, Brian Friel's 'Translations' is as much about the contemporary situation in Ireland (it was written in 1980) as about 1830s Ireland, which is its setting. Caryl Churchill set Act 1 of 'Cloud Nine' (1979) in 19th Century colonial Africa, to make a point about contemporary attitudes to gender and race.

A state of the nation play can of course have a contemporary setting, and it need not be overtly political. A play such as 'Closer' by Patrick Marber, for intance, is much more inward looking and set in contemporary London, reflecting the 90s obsessions with materialism and self.

The best way to find out more on this subject is to see and/or read lots of plays. For example, at the time of writing this there is one more opportunity to see 'Collaboration' by Ronald Harwood. Set in Nazi Germany, it could also be about our own collaboration or otherwise with our government's actions. 'Liberty', also at Chichester in November, is a modern adaptaion of a 1912 novel set in Paris, 1793. This version 'brings a fluidity and immediacy to a story that is both fresh and relevant'. Or you could catch 'West Side Story' at Woking in September - has an old tale of violent death at the hands of rival gangs really nothing to say about the state of the nation today?

Another useful source of ideas is Michael Billington's excellent book 'State of the Nation - British Theatre since 1945', published last year.

Or to put it another way: the historical setting and location of a play do not necessarily define what the play is actually about. Themes and ideas can be expressed in many different ways, including through setting and style.

Jacquie