Small plays about big society@ The old Joint Stock

The Old Joint Stock is certainly a gem of a venue, the most atmospheric element being the high-ceilinged, welcoming, warm pub, dating back to 1884. The bar hosts regular jazz sessions and up the winding stairs you’ll find the ‘theatre’; an intimate room that plays host to performances under an array of genre. As part of ‘Capital’, a festival of new writing, ‘Small Plays about Big Society’ consisted of five short plays in response to Cameron’s call for ‘people power’ and plans for the ‘Big Society’. The first play had a cast of one woman and there was a split second Friends moment when she said: “so you probably think that this will be a normal play and other actors will appear? Well they won’t” however it was an effective performance and the scale of the room helped elevate the message and present the concept of a play within a play. Becky Wright, a Mountview graduate who plays NicHanson in The Archers was one of the more talented cast members and also took on a one-woman performance in ‘The Watched Sea’ which pictured Cameron’s’ big society’ in futuristic, almost dystopian terms and questioned the loss of the individual in the ‘big society’. Social order, the final play of the evening examined the effects of this concept on small communities and used comic characterisation and situation in the form of a committee meeting, illustrating the kind of normality that Cameron could easily have overlooked in his plans. The recent arts cuts were also featured, in the opening performance significantly, as this was used for the reason for the play having a cast of one. This poignant opening play resulted in the question of arts cuts being present throughout, and both stressed and questioned the importance of this art form.