My Country; a work in progress

prepared by Carol Ann Duffy

seen at the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 1 March 2017

Rufus Norris directs Penny Layden (Britannia), Stuart McQuarrie (Caledonia), Adam Ewan (South-West), Christian Patterson (Cymru), Seema Bowri (East Midlands), Cavan Clarke (Northern Ireland) and Laura Elphinstone (North-East) in a play comprising verbatim interviews with dozens of people in the various regions of the UK (pointedly excluding London and the South-East, apart from some politicians' statements spoken by Britannia) in relation to the Brexit referendum, with framing and connecting pieces by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The play opens with Britannia calling the regions together for a meeting "as she always does" at critical moments of history - some previous occasions are referred to, going back to the fourteenth century. As the representatives of six regions arrive they bustle and chatter, the tensions between them veering between relaxed chaffing and more serious confrontation; Britannia is like a convener somewhat weary of the bickering. 

On this occasion (the Brexit referendum) she has also invited an audience (us) to listen to the deliberations. The regions announce that they will speak in the voices of some of their citizens, while Britannia will speak the words of Westminster (mainly "David", "Boris", Michael" and "Nigel" and also "Jo" and "Teresa"). Some of the speakers are heard briefly in their own voices before the actors take on the transcriptions; the preliminary voices speak about their backgrounds before the real subject of discussion is addressed. 

The voices represent many different views although all must eventually come down on one side or the other of the referendum question. The transcripts are taken from seventy long interviews conducted around the country at Rufus Norris's request when he realised just how out of touch the "metropolitan elite" is with the regions. At first each is listened to but as time passes courtesy is eroded; there are interruptions and shouting matches until almost all order has vanished in the cacophony. This mirrors the increasing tendency of people to be absolutely convinced of their own position and the depressing unlikelihood that they will take seriously what others with differing views have to say. 

Interspersed in these fascinating excerpts are statements from Westminster - David Cameron's initial announcement that a referendum would take place, and some of his speeches in support of staying within the EU, Boris Johnson's flamboyant metaphorical style, Nigel Farage's and Michael Gove's populist interventions. Boris inevitably provides comic relief - but at the same time it is disheartening to realise how superficial his breezy bonhomie sounds in relation to the deeply serious concerns voiced by ordinary people around the country. Michael and Nigel are utterly self-absorbed - further examples of the cocooning effect of Westminster politics and media attention.

Fundamentally the play pleads for a return of empathy and for close, sincere attention to be paid to a whole spectrum of opinion, as opposed to the easy judgements and dismissals that are now so common. In this, the opportunity to hear what the interviewees had to say is really valuable, though occasionally undercut by a tendency to laugh at regional stereotypes, and even by the difficulty of listening to a broad dialect which is probably not the actor's native speech. Quite sensibly, the best comic moments arise in the exchanges between the personified regions, but inevitably some of the statements from the transcripts also provoke astonished laughter, which perhaps works against rather than for the enterprise.

Curiously, and effectively, there are also some genuinely moving moments. One of the first voices we hear is that of an elderly shepherd reflecting on changing times: "I know that on the hills you don't go shepherding every day any more, you go round and pick up your dead and that is how it is and the sheep ... they're astonished when you arrive, whereas a shepherd in my time, they, they knew, they knew you." Easy of course for a city-dweller such as me to be touched by this sort of pastoral regret, but I think it really marks a change to the way people relate to their land.

Equally poignant is Britannia's outlook, concerned, worn down by fractious dispute, trying to manage. The framework of a council of personified regions is a brilliant way of setting the scene and imbuing it with a real sense of national purpose; Britannia's impassioned concluding speech as the various voices say which way they voted - if they bothered to vote at all, or were even allowed to - concludes with the challenging question, "Are you listening?".