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Bulletin the University of Sussex newsletter   Next Article      Contents

Talking Plays

alan bennettThe winning plays in a competition judged by Alan Bennett, one of Britain's leading playwrights, will be showcased at the Gardner Arts Centre next week.

The competition was organised by the Sussex University Performing Arts Society (SUPAS), which asked lecturer Amber Jacobs (CCS) to select a shortlist of four from the 15 student entries. They were then sent to Alan Bennett at his home in Yorkshire.

Bennett, whose credits include Talking Heads (1987) and The Madness of King George (1991), clearly found the task of judging a play more daunting than writing one. "Never having won a competition myself I'm a bit dubious about judging one", he admitted. "This is partly because I don't like to see anyone lose and also because I feel the world is increasingly prize-ridden ... In Yorkshire I have an award-winning coalman, so I know."

Declining to choose an outright winner, Bennett opted instead to discuss "what I think makes a play or doesn't and how these plays illustrate that".

He commended both The Tragedy of Alba-Eire-Africa in America by Fanny Garvey (EAM) and Close to the Edge by Chrissie Mann (also from EAM) for the range of their ambition. "The Tragedy of Alba in particular - a history and morality play that is hard to summarise but could be said to be about colonialism - is a huge play with a vast canvas."

Bennett's praise was tempered with reservations, however. "I have to say that I don't really understand what either play means or is getting at really, because neither has any one character whom one can consistently care about or be interested in. Plays, it seems to be, begin with a character, a person the audience wants to follow and know more about. Or rather I think my plays do that but may be just me being behind the times."

He found no such problem with The Last Laugh, by Charlotte Mooney (EURO), which is set in the Garden of Gethsemane. "The characters, Jesus and his disciples, are in varying degrees familiar," said Bennett. "What we want, though, is some fresh insight into this familiar situation. This the play does not really provide, and the story being so familiar, it would be a remarkable play if it did. So again I applaud its ambition without feeling that it's entirely successful."

"Fair enough," responded Charlotte, who felt that she had come up with a good idea that didn't really work. Given that The Last Laugh is her first play (written in two days, and specifically for the SUPAS competition), this is perhaps not unduly surprising.

Ruth Margolis (EAM) is another first-time playwright, who was encouraged to write Beads, a play about mother and son, because of Bennett's involvement in the competition. She was "really pleased" with his feedback - "pretty gobsmacked, actually".

"Beads is the one I recognise as being a play," the dramatist said, "and having some of the ingredients I think are essential to a story told on the stage. It's a modest play, doesn't attempt a great deal but at least I know where I am. What it lacks, of course, the first two plays have in abundance, namely scope and ambition."

In the end, Bennett found himself confirmed in his prejudices: "A play needs a character or characters who is/are vivid and interesting and about whom the audience can care. He or she needs to talk in language that is terse and alive; characters should not just be the mouthpiece of the author but must speak for themselves."

You can form your own opinion of the shortlisted plays on Saturday 18 March, when readings from all four works will be followed by a panel discussion on the art of playwriting, chaired by local playwright Chris Stagg. Tickets cost £4 (£3 concessions) and are available from the Gardner Arts Centre box office on 01273 685861.

 

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Friday 10th March 2000

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