Katharine Drury in Clay by Adam Foster.
On a sunny September day in a church hall in deepest, darkest South London I found myself playing drama games with a bunch of buzzy actors and wondering what I’d let myself in for.
This was my first day of PLAY – a new writing initiative founded by Rebecca Durbin that champions a collaborative approach to making new work by bringing together actors, writers and directors to share a PLAYroom for a fast-paced fortnight of devising and creating.
Zip zap boing happened. So did that one where you all hold hands and get into a knot and have to fumble and touch each other inappropriately as you try in vain to untangle yourselves. I soon remembered why I never wanted to go to drama school.
My mood improved when we were put into our respective teams. My team – team PLAY8 – consisted of director Hannah Hauer-King (Fury, Brute, Dry Land) and actors Katharine Drury and Alex Hope. Fast-forward a week and despite meeting for the first time only seven days previously, the four of us found ourselves dancing wildly to the music of Cheryl Cole and engrossed in lively debates about the politics of sexual consent. Safe to say, we’d all but forgotten our supposed roles as actors, writer and director.
PLAY thrives on this fluidity. If conventional new writing initiatives consist of a writer writing, a director directing and the actors, well, acting. PLAY gives its participants the chance to challenge themselves by facilitating a collaborative process in which actor, writer and director have equal input into the writing and shaping of a new play.
By the end of our two weeks together, it was difficult to distinguish who had come up with what. And, you know what, it was all the better for it. Not least because it meant that I wouldn’t be solely responsible if anyone thought it was shit, but also because what we’d come up with was a hundred times funnier and bolder than anything I would have come up with sitting on my own in front of my laptop.
PLAY8 was performed alongside three other short plays at the Old Red Lion Theatre in September last year. When it was over we shed a few tears and drank a few beers but, even then, I think we knew that PLAY8 had the germ of something more substantial in it. We were thrilled, then, when the Pleasance approached us about programming a full-length version of PLAY8 for the following April.
So we got to work. Embracing the model that had proved so successful during our two weeks together in September, we set up and met up for more PLAYtime. One of things we were keen to avoid – as can sometimes be the case when short plays are extended into full-length pieces – was for it to turn into watered down Ribena. So, instead of just padding out what we already had, we set about extrapolating what it was that interested us most about PLAY8, formally and thematically, and using these as the cornerstones for the next stage of development.
The result is ‘Clay’ – a rom-com gone wrong about complicity and sexual consent. The play exists against the backdrop of an increasing awareness of and conversation around the issue of sexual consent. You may have seen Thames Valley Police’s brilliantly succinct animated video using the analogy of having a cup of tea to clarify the law on sexual consent. Or maybe you watched BBC3’s ‘Is This Rape? Sex on Trial’ – a unique television event that combined drama with live voting to find out what a group of British teenagers understood about rape. Even pop lyrics have been dragged into the conversation.
Though it is an absolute banger, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling a sense of uneasiness when listening to Justin Bieber asking “What do you mean, when you nod your head yes/ But you wanna say no?” Indeed, “What Do You Mean,” like “Blurred Lines” before it, points to a consensual ambiguity where a woman’s partner takes interpretation into his own hands by presuming (incorrectly) to know what she’s thinking “” even when she says otherwise.
Lois Pineau, in her article ‘Date Rape: A Feminist Analysis’, states “the reasoning that underlies the present criterion of consent is entangled in a number of mutually supportive mythologies which see sexual assault as masterful seduction, and silent submission as sexual enjoyment.” Pineau argues that male aggression and female reluctance are widely believed by both society and the courts to be normal parts of seduction.
Staging these ambiguities comes with an inherent responsibility. We were keen for ‘Clay’ to offer a feminist perspective on the subject and to not fall into the trap of perpetuating ignorant, victim-blaming arguments that focus on the male perspective, repeatedly dwelling on how accusations “ruin a man’s life”. At the same time, for the drama to work, it was important that the actions of and justifications for the behaviour of the male character in the play are at least plausible, if not understandable.
We hope the play finds a diverse audience – of both young people and the adults responsible for them – with a view to sparking lively debate and continuing conversations around the issue of sexual consent.
Clay is on at Pleasance until 24th April. More information here.
