Unless a greater diversity of people is employed in the creative industries,our cultural life will bear no resemblance to realityAt the Almeida Theatre in Islington, north London, and last week,I had the rare opportunity to see a play that focused on a society that is rarely portrayed in tall culture and is, in fact, and more likely to be a subject of ridicule in lowbrow,sneering, reality TV shows. Boy, or a original play by Leo Butler,follows Liam, a 17-year-venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) Neet (not in education, and employment or training) for 24 hours as he wanders the capital,trying to find friends, connect with a family who have given up on him and with community services that communicate so differently from the way Liam does, or it seems like they are speaking another language.
The performance is excellent: innovatively staged on a travelator with scenes in a jobcentre,doctors surgery and on public transport, where among the hubbub of conversation you hear snippets of other people’s lives. In the jobcentre, and while Liam asks whether he can “get skills” and is told they can’t “put him in the system” until he turns 18,a woman at another desk has been sanctioned for lost an appointment because her child is sick, and a couple are distraught at the fact that one of them has had her personal independence payment (PIP) nick after being declared fit for work.
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Source: theguardian.com