The theatre industry has worked extremely hard in its efforts to expand opportunity for those from diverse groupings and working-class backgrounds. However, a couple of recent developments suggest that more needs to be done if the art form wishes to maintain its relative success in promoting equality.
Before getting into the current state of affairs, it might be worth taking a brief trip back into history.
While, for centuries, the community was assumed to be comprised of “rogues and vagabonds”, through much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the working classes might have been regarded as welcome contributors to audience numbers and revenues but little more.
On stage, the relatively fortunate had opportunities to play maids, spear carriers and supernumeraries, although one suspects that many of these parts were also taken up by the well-to-do, putting on mock cockney or northern accents. Even so, those with deprived backgrounds did better than those from ethnic minorities, who would not even get a look in, unless they were playing the occasional, exceedingly rare comically stereotypical role.
The arrival of the workers as a force began in the 1950s, when John Osborne inadvertently stumbled into the kitchen and discovered that it contained a sink. Suddenly, drama opened out to working class actors and, to an extent, writers, although even then the typical director was a man educated at Oxford or Cambridge.
In the 21st century, many theatre companies effectively used positive discrimination to redress the balance, although they would rarely accept the semantics. This means that actors from beyond the white middle class have unprecedented chances to strut their stuff. Unfortunately, even then the playing field is far from level.
As he departs the Young Vic, Kwame Kwei-Armah, who is a rare triple threat having achieved significant success as writer, director and actor, went out of his way to bemoan the lack of provision of drama and art classes in schools. As he told The Guardian, “opportunities for actors from minority backgrounds have improved exponentially… Diversity is deeply embedded in all casting decisions. Today, I’d like to say this is a battle won.”
That sounds brilliant until you read his codicil about cuts to arts education including drama lessons: “without a shadow of a doubt this is a trend we need to reduce. We learned during the culture wars that while you think you have a victory today, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to be fighting those battles again.
“If drama and art is not properly provisioned in our schools, we may be having the same debate around class and race again in 10 years’ time. It’s a priority for us all to make sure we communicate with the government that they need to make interventions in this area.”
Coincidentally, the Sutton Trust has produced a report expressing concern that working class kids are being “blocked” from careers in the creative industries, which remain disproportionately represented by those from “upper middle-class backgrounds”.
Although only 7% of UK children are educated at fee-paying schools, 43% of classical musicians and 35% of BAFTA-nominated actors attended such private schools. 64% of actors are university-educated, with 29% attending specialist art institutions. Somewhat predictably, 9% went to Oxford or Cambridge, which only educates a tiny proportion of those in the relevant age group.
As a result of its survey, the Trust is suggesting a series of improvements to widen the access of working-class students to the arts. These include an “arts premium” to fund training in schools, a ban that would prevent creative arts institutions from charging for auditions, predicating arts funding on socio-economic inclusion and banning unpaid internships of more than four weeks.
The trust’s chief executive, Nick Harrison, sounds despairing when commenting, “it’s a tragedy that young people from working-class backgrounds are the least likely to study creative arts degrees, or break into the creative professions. These sectors bear the hallmarks of being elitist—those from upper middle-class backgrounds, and the privately educated are significantly over-represented.”
This is the moment that Arts Minister Lisa Nandy can step up to the plate and prove her worth in the role, while supporting the social values promoted by her party. Let’s see if she does.