10 June
As we entered the Ustinov’s curtain-less auditorium the set put me in mind of the surrealist photographs of Angus McBean; a woman, masked to the shoulders in a forties style lampshade, sits on a chair. Behind her a large floor lamp and to her side a table covered with a cloth. A ukulele leans against a table leg in patient expectation. However it was some small relief to realise we were not going to be tested with a surrealist flight of fantasy, but treated to something more like a cosy little chat over a coffee or two with a couple of mates and, ‘You wouldn’t believe what happened to me at an audition the other day.’ Katie Arnstein is a girl from Lichfield who set off for what Cobbett called The Great Wen in order to find fame and fortune. The bright-eyed wannabe, primed by her drama school to always say ‘yes’, is due a reality check. Cue a silent chorus of woe.
For a few decades now the sociology of the arts has been focusing our minds on the access that creatives from previously overlooked parts of society have to the public’s attention. The eponymous lamp refers to a suggested test of female agency in a story or film. If you can replace a female character with a sexy lamp (the original being a prop, a leg with a shade, in an eighties film) without detriment to the story then she serves no purpose, has no agency.
Abuse of power/ authority/ patronage has been with us since the year dot, however the methods of resistance are increasingly to be found in a new solidarity. Loud bangs may gain our attention, but social change is more akin to herding sheep than throwing hand grenades. We need constant nudging in the right direction and some gentle reinforcement. Ms Arnstein understands the task. Her chummy biographical monologue has no bullish pugnacity, no noisy or red-faced anger. Flicking her hair and leaning-in confidentially, finger over her lips with an amused, ’What can we say about this,’ expression, the impression is just a determined, ‘This will no longer do.’ We, the audience, are not there to be convinced – it’s bloody obviously wrong – but that’s no excuse for not laying out the case as a matter of record. Turning a blind eye to the suggestion of sexual favours in the workplace, any workplace, is a thing of the past. At least it should be.
Graham Wyles 11th June 2022
Photo credit: Jason Drake
