OPINION

"I was led to believe that theatre wasn't for people like me, wasn't for someone from my background" says Michael Black
Working Class Voices
by Michael Black
In Hull theirs a performing arts academy, the Northern Academy of Performing Arts, it's next to a rowdy nightclub called Tower ''Yer coming out tonight, it's Tower for an hour?''. I'd previously seen little show offs coming out of NAPA, but had always being too focused on giving my liver a good kick in at the nightclub next door to register it as anything connected to my small bubble. One Saturday afternoon, to kill some time more than anything, I walked into the building and participated in one of their acting classes. It was a surprising life changing moment, I left that class knowing exactly what I wanted to, what I needed to do, what I'd always wanted to do, everything leading up to this point suddenly made sense, seventeen years of alienation and confusion all justified in a sudden realisation '' I want to be an actor.''

This realisation had come just in time, the past seventeen years had been filled with such a lack of purpose that I was really lost and confused as to what the point of it all was. One year earlier, towards the end of my time at school, I was encouraged to undertake one of the limited options that were on offer to me. I could go onto Hull College and train to become something that I'd never wanted to be, but was made to feel that was all I was good for. Get those grades, get an apprenticeship, become a bricky, sparky, mechanic, plumber etc get a girlfriend, married, kids, same job, die. My path was laid out for me from the moment I stepped through those school gates, the small box which I was encouraged to build and live in forever was pushed onto me by everyone I knew. 

It was never expected that I'd amount to anything or that I'd have anything of value to say or add to the world, not just me but all of us. We were encouraged to brave the storm and just get on with things without question. Stay in our pre designated boxes. It was as though the collective unconscious of Hull had it ingrained in us that we were only good at facilitating, on the side lines, scared to participate, just getting by, props and stand ins, as opposed to being the creators and leaving a strong mark on the world. 

From an early age the 'us and them' mentality that many working class communities feel, I know me and my mates did, was very prevalent. With my limited handful of options I definitely felt hopeless and nihilistic. I jumped around from meaningless apprenticeship to meaningless apprenticeship. This lack of purpose and reckless escapism led me to hanging around with the wrong sort of people, getting myself into all sorts of situations. I now knew that all of that energy, all of those feelings and emotions, could now be channeled into something positive instead of self destruction.

So, that Saturday class at NAPA put everything in perspective, I wasn't some weird little odd ball that wouldn't put up, shut up, get in line and conform, but I was meant to take a different path, the difficult, challenging and mind altering path that changed my life. Apart of me died so that I could be reborn. I began taking acting classes, youth Theatre, studied a Btech and with that came a passion for Theatre. I started to think that Theatre may be for someone like me after all. Because up until this point I was led to believe that it wasn't for people like me, wasn't for someone from my background, didn't represent the community I lived in. No one I knew or hung around with ever saw plays, Theatre was for the 'other'. But when I stepped into that world I realised that it was, it was for everyone, not just a small section of society but across the board. Then why I had being led to believe that this world wasn't for people like me? Why was I adamantly told that manual labor was the only options on offer?

When I moved to London a few years later to train as an actor I became aware that people were also trapped in a bubble, but unlike the Hull bubble this was a bubble of privilege. The London bubble shared a few similarities to the Hull bubble, one of total unawareness of anything else existing outside of it.

Growing up in or near London is a massive privilege, especially if you're interested in the arts. The amount of opportunities to get involved in Theatre, go watch plays or even just the mindset people have around acting is completely different to anything that I'd grown up with. The way a lot of people in the country feel is that Theatre is something that's not for them, something that other people do, the way they've been made to feel in society reflects these views, they wouldn't fit in, too busy, whats the point? Living in London for the past five years I forgot this is how many people in the North feel and it's easy to assume that everybody's been given a slice of the pie. 

I decided to start writing not only to use some of those harsh previous experiences growing up in Hull in a productive way, but also to bridge the gap between these two bubbles. To show that Theatre is for everyone and that the vast differences of our experiences within our society needs to be celebrated and given equal weight. Then maybe if more stories and creatives from backgrounds like myself are given a platform more people from areas like Hull will believe that they can do it too, that they aren't just limited to what they're told is for people like them.

Which brings me to Starved, a new play set in a scruffy bedsit on a council estate in Hull, it's a fast paced and gritty two hander which examines the extremes people can go to when desperate & the effects a toxic relationship can have on mental health. The play is all based in truth and things that I've heard, seen and been through. I wanted to really turn the heat up on these characters and look at what people can be driven to when they feel isolated. When they feel like they have no meaningful purpose or place in society. How far can we be pushed until we bite back?

Michael Black

Michael is writer of multi five star and award nominated play STARVED, coming to the Hope Theatre 16 July - 3 August.  He is co-founder of Faded Ink Theatre Company. His debut play, In the Wake Of, was part of Camden Fringe in 2018. 
"When I moved to London a few years later to train as an actor I became aware that people were also trapped in a bubble, but unlike the Hull bubble this was a bubble of privilege."
Presented by Faded Ink Productions:
STARVED
by MICHAEL BLACK
The Hope Theatre
207 Upper Street
London N1 1RL
16 July – 3 August 2019

Box Office: 0333 666 3366

“This was never going to last, was it? Running away from our problems. We ain’t Bonnie and f*cking Clyde”
Lad and Lass are on the run. They’re squatting in a bedsit on one of Hull’s roughest estates and living hand to mouth on a diet of roll-ups, vodka and Cup-a-Soup. Spiralling towards breaking point, they fight and flirt, dream up stories and drag each other down. But caged by circumstance and warped by their own toxic relationship, will they ever be able to escape and survive? 

FADED INK PRODUCTIONS

Faded Ink produce works of raw new writing rooted in real experience, created by working class theatre makers. Starved is the company’s third
production after making their London debut with In the Wake Of in 2018, which was selected as one of London Pub Theatres’ top plays to see.




@June 2019 London Pub Theatres Magazine Limited

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