The first cut is the deepest

The cuts are rapidly becoming synonymous with an unhealthy cultural state, although perhaps we should question how healthy our cultural sector was before its funding started being cut. There is no doubt that theatre has been hit hard, and smaller venues and companies producing the best of new work and innovative material are suffering. But perhaps we can find a glimmer of hopeful possibility amongst all the damage for slowly rejuvenating theatre to a more healthy state than the one it was in even before the cuts. I realise that this is imbued with a sense of naïve optimism, but perhaps a dash of that is just what we need.

Let’s consider theatre when it was in its youth, specifically the form of the Italian commedia dell’arte. This was a theatre made by the people and for the people, performed in the streets with only the most basic of theatrical tools. They had no funding, no money for lavish costumes, spectacular sets or a flying device. If someone needed to fly they would perform a back flip or other such acrobatics and that would be that. There is an innovative imagination within the commedia that we could learn from.

The commedia players’ money was made by earning it through the excellence with which they performed their craft. It was a highly popular art form because it never ignored its audience; its comedy responded to them and its content included them, commedia was often a form of light-hearted dissent.

So maybe we can learn from the commedia players. We may want to protest against the cuts so why not turn to this form to do it? More importantly, looking to commedia can teach us to return to the art of the theatre, to rely on nothing but our craft and perhaps in doing so reunite theatre and audience. By returning to the basic components of the art form we can bring theatre back to life, and show everyone that the cuts will not kill it.