Cheap Essays: *Sigh*

There have been a lot of people talking about how women writers aren’t breaking through in theatre. Which they aren’t.

For lots of systemic, cultural, institutional reasons, women are being underrepresented and underrespected in theatre writing, as in so many fields of work and it’s horrible. And it's an issue that really needs examining and finding solutions to.

But when I was thinking about this problem, it made me wonder whether there were any new writers breaking through at all.

So, I had a pretty wide sweep around London theatres – those who accept submissions and suggest they are supportive of new writers – for examples of work this season (the next few months) that you can go see which is by a new playwright. I want to be specific about this, I was looking for someone new.

As in, someone who has not had a production before, someone normal– not an actor who got their play in the door via an email to the literary manager saying “hello, remember me from the National? I dun wrote a play.” (nothing against actors, I’m sure their plays are great and crafted and rigorous, but it’s different and they are within the industry) – I was looking for someone you might imagine wrote a play unrepresented by an agent and sent it, unsolicited, to a theatre without any hope in hell and managed to get a production from it – something that has always been unlikely but that did happen in the past. Basically, cf Robert Holman.

And I was really pleasantly surprised, actually.

Nah, like fuck I was, it’s dire.

I basically found none, really. Nobody. There are actors and there are people who won prizes, which is a route, a brilliant one, but one that really negates the idea of having theatres with open submissions at all.

Apart from, well, then, I found, well, this:

“My Mum’s A Twat is Anoushka’s first professional play.” At The Royal Court.

My heart leapt.

Someone called Anoushka wrote a play, sent it in and now it’s on! And it sounds funny from the title and that’s a swearword and fucking good for them. Thank fucking fuck for that. Phew.

Until you do a very very quick google of that writer, who I am sure is really nice and talented and whose play I am sure is very brilliant, but who also happens to work at the Court as head of press.

For.

Fuck.
Sake.
Just.
I.
Can’t.

Even.

I don’t really know where to go with this. It’s true, of course, that theatres are underfunded. It’s true, of course, that new writing might as well, of course, very often, just happily die an unmourned death, of course.

However, it’s also patently true that theatres, even those claiming interest in new writing, do not end up producing work they get sent by those without previous standing. One can only look at the situation and imagine that theatres are just receiving, reading, and passing on every play they get sent through open submissions. They do not care about the work in front of them, they care about where it comes from. Quite plainly. Because, there aren’t any new writers being produced.

This might be because there are too many writers writing plays to get read (in which case, wherefore open submissions anyway), it might be because only represented writers are writing good plays (think about that for a sec and you’ll see a bulletproof argument smashed to pieces), or it might be because theatres – particularly the bigger ones – can’t be arsed or can’t afford the “risk”, or some mixture of those two things, to programme new writers. I favour the latter explanation. Of course I do.

And, obviously, you can see why: it’s hard enough supporting developed writers, something they also must do – I want to see Chris Thorpe’s new Royal Court play loads and loads – and none of them can scrape a living, anyway. I get that.

But having concerns about the gender of the playwrights getting supported by the industry ignores the structural fact that, right now, the doors are shut to all newcomers, and that seems perhaps an even more pressing and difficult trend to face up to.
_____ P.S. I really don't mean to be rude about Anoushka or cast aspersions – I genuinely am looking forward to that play. I just care about this stuff and it hurts to be disappointed and proven right so roundly. P.P.S. I'm also aware I *will* have missed a writer over here that's just been programmed and I've completely fucked it by ignoring. I feel my argument still holds water and I would invite you to remember I have a life and am not a journalist and write these in my free time – I know, weird, isn't it. So, if you've got a correction, just be nice and not a sneery cunt about it. Thnx.

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