Naima Khan talks to the artistic director of Arcola Theatre about The Cradle Will Rock, and the future for the Arcola as it moves into its new environmentally friendly home.
Arcola Theatre is a performance space that is leading the move toward a greener future for the arts. As it prepares for its rebirth into a larger, more environmentally friendly building, I manage to catch artistic director Mehmet Ergen on a break from rehearsing the last show at the current Arcola.
In a theatre that still has an active clothes factory above it, The Cradle Will Rock, a play Ergen describes as “very pro union a worker's piece”, still strikes a chord with theatregoers. It's also a perfect farewell to the current building and a salute to everything the Arcola has come to stand for.
Ergen explains: “This is probably the last factory in this area so I wanted to mark the contribution of the workers over the past few decades in this country”. Directing a huge cast of 17 in an agitprop musical is made easier because he believes in its topicality: “We've got a lot of right wing press in this country. They often say [of trade unions] 'Oh they're on strike again! This is not France! Stop this!' But the reason I'm talking to you now is because it's a lunch break. Trade unions were the ones who said we should have lunch breaks, they said don't work on the weekends, and we need paid holidays. This all came from a big left wing movement that everyone thought was a bad thing.”
He also notes the distinct parallel between the provocative way The Cradle Will Rock was regarded in the 1930s and the way the arts is received in many countries around the world. “In The States” he begins, “The Cradle Will Rock was labelled an un-American show, a communist piece. They closed theatres thinking 'we support these theatres and they preach these kinds of things!?'. but in fact the authorities were using every segment of society: the Church the universities., the press, everyone was sort of part of a deal.”
While Britain often considers itself an example of freedom of speech, particularly in the arts, globally a different status quo exists. “In many countries there is a very strong relationship between the press and the university system. It is like that at the moment in Turkey for example, where I'm from. Everything is interlinked. It's all for money and power. Everything is used. Politics is not just politics, religion is not just religion, you can pay people and they preach what you want them to preach. That's what the show says, it's very timely”.
Unlike the shimmery musicals of the West End, the musicality of The Cradle Will Rock emerges from the emotive drama of the script. Its agitprop nature and the calibre of singers is something Ergen is particularly proud of. “Some people will find it possibly dated but people will also realise that a lot of these issues have not changed. There are wonderful lines for example, ''this is a war to end war, we do this for peace', that's what George Bush was saying before he went to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Arcola's new premise was formerly home to Reeves Art Supplies, a brand that has been around since 1766. The opening play, Ergen says, is “in keeping with the spirit of the building”. Of the artistic direction that the Arcola will take in its new home on Ashwin Street, he says: “New writing will continue and all our community groups will come with us.” Arcola's community projects include Ala-Turka, a Turkish and Kurdish theatre group, and Arcola's Writers' Group, a workshop that provides an opportunity for writers to have their work develop.
“We do a lot of work that is political and challenging”, Ergen continues. “We won't give up on that. The opening show will reflect our commitment to new writing. We've commissioned one of the best female playwrights in the country, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who wrote the opening play for the Arcola [Soho: A Tale of Table Dancers]. We decided to go for the good omen and open with a play written by her on the painter Joseph Turner.”
Looking back on the last ten years, as artistic director, Ergen weighs up what he's most proud of and what the future could hold: “It's been very challenging. After ten years we still hold the record for having the least funding form Arts Council England. We're very young. There are twenty/thirty-year-old theatres of the same size who get ten times as much funding. But we are in a leading position on green issues. The truth is if you want to do something, a lack of money doesn't stop you. We're in a good position, we can pay people. But things will change with the new government, so we're preparing”
The Cradle Will Rock runs at Arcola Theatre until 18th December.
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