“Is British Theatre Guilty of Failing the Working Class.”

crowblack I'm told by someone who works at the school that all avenues were explored - and I know that there are all sorts of subsidies and schemes (including a borough wide scheme called Every Child A Theatregoer which has now fallen foul of austerity cuts) - but nothing could bridge the gap. Have to say though that as I walk past Stratford East most days I see plenty of school groups queuing up to go in during panto time so maybe it is just a question of schools choosing which activities to prioritise/ask parents for money for. Can't imagine it's a health and safety concern as the kids are taken to swimming, museum trips and the like. As a one time parent helper getting a kid into a local theatre seat would be a lot less stress than wrangling them onto the tube (there is always one kid who has never been on an escalator) and then trying not to lose them in the science museum.

crowblack I know what you mean - I grew up in the East End in the 1970s when all sorts of things were 'not for the likes of us' (the only theatre trip we ever went to with school was to see a production of Pygmalion at the local university settlement - Toynbee Hall. No doubt a well meaning attempt to bring us some culture with a message but we were just put out that there were no songs - someone must have mentioned My Fair Lady to us in connection with the trip.) But I know that the school in question also has at points in the year run out of blue tack to display children's work - funds are that short. As for cultural 'fit' the Stratford East panto is as multicultural as the schools it performs for. There are - of course - no easy answers to any of this. And of course access to any sort of culture is much easier if you live in a major city and can take advantage of free TFL fares for school parties etc.

Oh yes Lynette, think we are of similar vintage. We didnt watch Itv in my house til i was at secondary school. Remember other boys in my class talking about programmes id never heard of!

Schools chosen to be on documentaries are not particularly representative, they make for good television, though.

There is a real issue with rampant administration, however, being constructed via layer upon layer of government demands. Change the whole culture of governments making changes, then new changes, then updates of those changes and the need to show that these are being implemented, run and monitored and those sort of executive roles will shrivel away. 

Yet, the consumers we are told want that level of oversight. It’s the usual problem - people want lower taxes and higher spending, increased efficiency yet greater oversight, having cake and eating cake. They are incompatible demands.

We have the most educated generation in history, I have a lot of faith in the current generation as demonstrated by the climate change action.

The issues we have now is more the ignorance and selfishness of my generation and the preceding retired babyboomers who had the educative media when we were growing up.

I think what I was trying to convey is that despite the obvious positive changes which have happened something has changed and the ‘Daily Mail’ mentality has become the pervasive one for a majority of a generation.

Back to, Is British Education Guilty of Failing... is the part that I cannot reconcile, we are allegedly dumber but more educated or is it schooled.

I hope it is educated and we can feel the benefit of the policy making a difference in the coming years.

One thing that I can ask, what was the mix of Theatre goers in the 70’s, 80’s, photographs seem to indicate a similarity to now,

is it just
18-25 clubbing / gigs / finding life partner etc , little time and inclination for sitting quietly in the dark.
25-45 raising a family / TV primary interaction with drama
45 - lessening of family commitments and gravitation towards Theatre for drama even though rarely as a treat.


Sweeping generalisations I know, with the obvious Theatrical bias of a Theatre Forum are we projecting our interests and not really seeing things are carrying on as they always were and the changes we want are happening on the Stage at the moment and as this more open and diverse generation reach the ‘Theatre’ phase this will be reflected in the audience.

I genuinely think youngsters hate the idea of sitting still and not being on their phones for any long period of time - certainly they don't want to switch them off in cinemas!