Aequitas Theatre Company follows its take on Brecht’s Fear and Misery in the Third Reich with a new version of Sophocles’ Antigone, opening this week at London’s Bread and Roses Theatre. In our interview, director Rachael Bellis explains why she loves political theatre… and why she’s swapped Trump’s America for Thatcher’s Britain for her new production. Time to get booking!
Those in power make the laws to suit their pockets. Ordinary people are worse off. The leadership are at a crossroads with the will of the people, though the leaders think they are correct. Sound familiar? That’s right… it’s a Greek tragedy re-imagined with a 1980s twist.
Aequitas presents Antigone in a new 90-minute translation. Set in Durham in during the Miners’ Strike, Antigone wishes to bury her brother Polyneices, a striking miner who has been killed by his twin Eteocles, a scab. However, the funeral has been made illegal by the new police chief, Creon, their aunt who has taken control of the city. Creon sentences her niece to death and chaos ensues.
Does power truly corrupt? And when it does, what is the fallout? Aequitas highlights this belief and transports it to a more modern time to examine the social constructs throughout the ages.
Fresh from her directorial debut with Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, set in Trump America and Brexit Britain, Rachael Bellis helms what is sure to be another controversial political piece.
The cast features Soroosh Lavasani as older brother Ismene and fiance Haemon, Mary Tillett as Creon, and Natasha Ravenscroft as Antigone. Aequitas works under the Equity’s Fringe Agreement and is fully committed to an equal opportunities casting policy. The production has lighting design by Holly Ellis, sound design by Annie May Fletcher and set design by Geraldine Cooper.
Rehearsal photos
Talking to… Rachael Bellis
Born in the US in the late 1980s, Rachael Bellis trained as an actor at New York’s Tisch School of the Performing Arts. After graduation, she moved to London and set up Aequitas in 2015, with a focus on allowing actors to play roles regardless of looks and therefore creating a place where marginalised actors could find work. Bellis made her directorial debut earlier this year with Aequitas’ new take on Brecht classic Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, relocated to Trump’s America and Brexit Britain. She now returns to helm Sophocles’ Antigone.
With Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, why did you choose these highly political modern settings?
I am American and had just voted in the 2016 election, which I felt at the time was a crucial moment for political history. I voted for Hillary Clinton and I felt so strongly that my country was repeating history by voting for fascism. It does remain to be seen and I hope I don’t have to say I was right, but I think most Brits can agree that Donald Trump is a problem, not just for America but globally.
As a director, I am interested in political theatre because my favourite kind of play to see is the kind that makes a statement about our society and keeps you thinking. It was set in America because I felt we were going down a dangerous road and then Brexit Britain because the Brits I knew felt that the campaign to leave was run in an underhanded way which, similar to my experience, felt like a step back for democracy.
I learned from that production that being so overt with my own views caused controversy but didn’t get people thinking in the way I wanted. I’m hoping with Antigone that my views aren’t splashed all over but sprinkled through instead. I’ve taken care to be more true to the original story and time instead of an agenda – though, of course, what I believe is still in there.
Why did you choose Antigone to follow Brecht?
Funnily enough, Brecht tried to adapt Antigone himself but never finished it. I studied Antigone in secondary school when I was still falling in love with theatre. Having just done Brecht and discovered that connection, I felt I wanted to tackle it.
Antigone is a highly political play and almost universal in its ideas. It’s amazing that, in a play written thousands of years ago, you can pull out feminism, equality, power, the individual versus the state, and an idea about how politics can impact the community. This resonance is why it stands the test of time and goes through adaptation after adaptation. I’m such a political nerd that I think Antigone was inevitable for me.
When Bellis researched the politics of the UK in the 1980s, she knew she had her show
Why the 1980s for your setting this time?
I didn’t want to do another set today right after my debut, but I still wanted to have a fairly modern setting. My first way into a piece is often the music. With the Brecht, I had 99 Red Balloons on the list because of a link with the Cold War and the bunker which served as my set, and also because it had both English and German versions that I married together. Of course, that song is from the 1980s. Then I started listening to Madonna and my mum’s old albums (Blondie and the GoGos) and knew I wanted it to be the 1980s. Then I researched Margaret Thatcher and the politics of the time in this country and found the Miners’ Strike, and I knew I had the show.
Why stage Antigone at Bread & Roses?
Everyone wants to know this! Yes, there is a special reason I have chosen this venue, but I don’t want to spoil it for the audience. There’s a small hint in that the pub has a history with unions, and of course, the Miners’ Strike was a battle for the unions. I would love the audience to have the surprise though.
Aequitas has committed to Equity’s Fringe Agreement. That’s significant for such a new company. Why do you think this is important?
I think Aequitas couldn’t claim to cast anyone regardless of background without paying a reasonable rate. The Fringe Agreement isn’t a lot to pay (we wish it was more), but our funding comes primarily from sales right now so it’s all we can do and it is at least reasonable. If we championed inclusivity without backing it up, we wouldn’t really be championing it. It is difficult as a new company to make it work without enough funding to go around – of course, it is. But we fundraise and work (sometimes very creatively) to a tight budget and do our best to put together a solid show with a high production value even on a shoestring. And we have a great team!
There’s a special reason why Rachael chose Bread & Roses for this production…
What’s next for you?
I have a few projects in the pipeline as a director, which aren’t announced yet, but I should pop up towards the end of this year and then next year. I’ve been commissioned for these outside of Aequitas so they’ll be slightly different. I’ll be back with Aequitas too after that! Aequitas is turning into a collective with some of the brilliant theatremakers we’ve found along the way. After some time spent fundraising, we will be launching an entire season around identity and the idea of finding yourself. We will have other directors doing some of these, but my contribution will inevitably involve politics again in some capacity. Keep your eyes peeled for some announcements!
Anything else you’d like to add?
I think we have been impacted as a society so much by the politics of the 1980s – just as our current politics will impact future generations in ways we don’t yet know. I feel that the impact the destruction of the unions had on the community can be linked with what is happening now. We as a society destroyed these communities and left these people out to dry, then vilified them. It’s so interesting how the information we had turned from “coal not dole” during the strike (miners fighting for their jobs) to David Cameron’s government completely decimating welfare and the people as a whole giving them license (through voting).
I don’t have all the answers and my opinion is complex, but I think we are all complicit in what goes on around us. We certainly let these communities down. It’s possible to point fingers at Thatcher, but every side has a role to play. Take the miners. The unions let them down. The Thatcher government took away their jobs. The Blair government didn’t retrain them when it became clear that our energy sources shifted. The Cameron government called them scroungers. It happened gradually so we didn’t notice.
I wonder we are doing today that will change our future. The point is we can’t know. All we can do is look at our past for answers.
