POLITICAL THEATRE AS A CIVIL RIGHT

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In these socially and politically turbulent times theatre cannot be a passive bystander to the inequality and violences of society.

It is time for British theatre to become politicised.

It is time for British theatre to change.

We go to the theatre to study and recover. Speech, hearing, learning, and healing are all conditions for the preservation of human dignity, and if the concept of law is to express the possibility of access to that dignity, we can say that political theatre is a civil right, as we can read it in the title of the BÉZNĂ theatre series. In this sense, the impossibility of political theatre and theatre conditions is an infringement. Fortunately, the revolutionary power of theatre lies precisely in the fact that when power, law, and truth are against us, theatre unites us and amplifies our voices. Glod - wet soil, clay, mud, soil, arable land ... The only question is how and what we form from it.

- Nora Ugron, "Színház" Magazine, Budapest (original in Hungarian)

 

GLOD  

  
ROMANIAN NOUN

  1. WET EARTH (SOAKED BY RAIN WATER OR MELTED SNOW)

  2. MUD

  3. CLAY

FROM THE HUNGARIAN GALÁD OR THE RUSSIAN ГЛУДА (GLUDA)

GLOD: Political Theatre as a Civil Right is a series of political theatre screenings from around the world including from Romania, Lebanon, UK, Mexico, Afghanistan, Palestine and Jordan. Join us every two weeks in solidarity with artists, activists and academics resisting from the ground. 

RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKET HERE.

Screenings will be directly followed by a live panel discussion and Q&A. 
Join us in conversation online to discuss, share and celebrate theatre to enact social and political change.  #GlodTheatre 
All performances and discussions are free.

YOU CAN DONATE TO THE PRESENTING COMPANY HERE.

Hosted by Howlround Theatre Commons 
Coordinated by BÉZNĂ Theatre

THEATRE FOR ALL

We believe that political and social theatre is a necessary tool in forming audiences’ political education and that it is their right to see it. This is why in Romania we use a funding model that allows us to present our work for free whilst all artists, creatives and collaborators are fully paid. In this way we make sure that people from all economic backgrounds have access to our work and are empowered, enraged and inspired to enact change in their society, irrespective of social class or economic potential. This is a first, essential step in encouraging grassroots activism through our art. *

We aim to bring this model to the UK, to encourage artists, programmers and audiences to see social, political and educational theatre not as a commodity, but as a right.

If you would like to get in touch with us about supporting this movement financially or practically please email us on contact@beznatheatre.org.

Our current working model will offer at least:

  1. Fixed, affordable ticket prices (one ticket will not cost any more than 1 hour of Living Wage including booking fees)

  2. 10% of venue tickets always free to individuals who are unable to access tickets

  3. 10% of venue tickets always free to individuals impacted by the issues we explore and combat in our productions

  4. 1 free performance to school/college students during school hours

  5. 1 free workshop on political documentary theatre making

  6. 1 piece of interventionist activism in each city we perform in

  7. 1 networking session for like-minded artists and activists

A NETWORK FOR CHANGE

We would like to create a network for political theatre artists, to create a safe and empowering space for the exchange of ideas and practices and to encourage more artists to question the status quo through their work. We would like to forge meaningful connections with other artists whereby we cease to see each other as competitors, but as collaborators. We want to encourage fellow artists to focus on the common activist aim of creating a safer, fairer intersectional society as a collective, not as individuals.

We want to create a network in which artists feel free to offer each other honest and fair constructive criticism and in which artists are comfortable to discuss, debate, challenge or accept constructive criticism from their peers. We want to move away from individualistic, self-indulgent, self-centred, self-absorbed work and into collectively conscious, collectively sensitive and altruistic work with the greater long-term aim of combating violence in all its oppressive forms. We aim for our network to be horizontal and equal despite age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, ability, belief or level of experience. We believe in equality of opinion, in fair exchange of ideas and in the importance of accepting error in order to achieve the higher aim of changing the world.

If you want to help us build a network for change, please email us on contact@beznatheatre.org.

* This model is inspired by and indebted to the educational and political spaces we have worked with in Romania, Centrul de Teatru Educațional Replika and MACAZ Bar Teatru Coop.